Mass Effect: The Warframe Crisis
by Neodammarung the Destroyer
Summary: The Orokin Empire is dead. For six hundred years, the Grineer and the Corpus have clashed over the smoldering remains of civilization. Now the conflict threatens to spread, and only the Tenno, awakened from six centuries of slumber, can save the galaxy from the chaos that is coming. Reboot of 'Warframe Effect' by Follower38, co-written by Follower38 and Neodammarung the Destroyer.
1. Chapter 1

**Mass Effect:**

**The Warframe Crisis**

Chapter 1

_Awaken old ones,_

_the Lotus calls you to war._

_Your time comes again._

-first recorded transmission of the Lotus upon reactivation, 634 P.C.-

**Location: Local Cluster, Origin System, Solar Periphery, Clan Alecto Dojo, Gathering Hall**

**Date: September 23, 643 P.C.**

The gathering hall was a seldom used part of Clan Alecto's Dojo. It was only when the Lotus called that it was opened up. Made to seat over five-hundred Tenno, the mere thirty present seemed out of place in the vast circular chamber. At its center was a large holographic podium, from which the Lotus could project her avatar or any related data to the briefings she routinely gave to those she was charged with managing. The Dojo was one of many springing up all over Origin as the Tenno awakened from their sleep of ages. Reborn without memories into a world of darkness, they were building outposts from which to restore the balance of power and perhaps rekindle the light of civilization which had inexplicably vanished in their absence.

At present, only the unoccupied members of Clan Alecto were present, and given they were not being observed by those who were not Tenno, they were chatting amongst themselves, sharing what they had learned about 'the Long Night', as it had come to be called, a period of six-hundred years in which the mighty Orokin Empire they had served had been supplanted by chaos and corrupt opportunists. In addition to this, there was considerable discussion about the series of slave revolts and rebellions they had helped foment all across Mercury.

"-never believe what it's like down there. Worst working conditions I've ever seen, not to mention shoddy construction. The clone bastards didn't even have the decency to install some proper lighting. Their loss, really…" The speaker of this particular pearl of wisdom was Nathan Durandul, Alecto's best swordsman and wearer of the Excalibur Warframe, counted among the unofficial inner circle that answered chiefly to the Clan Warlord, Haigen Montoya. The mine he was speaking of was just one of thousands that they had liberated from the Grineer, freeing those within and taking whatever resources and supplies they could strip from the place. His friend, Follower-of-the-Path, an old soldier in a Rhino Warframe who had trampled many a Grineer face into the dust of Mercury since he had awoken, chuckled.

"Taught 'em to fear the dark, didja?"

"Oh you should've seen the looks on their faces when I opened up their commander's throat while he was bellowing out orders." the Tenno chuckled. The Grineer, as a species, were a race of copies which had degraded into near-barbarism. Savage and brutal to all they encountered, their behavior had long since eroded any ideas of mercy the Tenno had held towards them. These days most of them were quite cavalier when it came to talk of killing, maiming, or otherwise inflicting bodily, or psychological, harm on the Grineer.

"Fear the dark? You should have made them fear the light." another one of the Tenno, a Volt-wearer opined. "Make them piss their armor wherever they are."

Nathan burst out laughing, and was joined by several others who had been listening in.

"And where would be the fun in that, Nikola? Its better when they think they're safe! And then-" He finished by drawing a finger across his throat.

Follower shook his head.

"That's hardly sporting!" he snorted, "What's hilarious is when you just stand there taking everything and the looks on their faces once they run out of ammo."

Nathan snickered.

"We don't all have your iron skin, my friend." he responded, before the sound of metal against metal drew everyone's attention to the center of the chamber, where Haigen Montoya, the head of Clan Alecto's inner circle was standing in his Frost Prime Warframe, patiently tapping his Reaper Prime scythe on the floor. Everyone grew silent.

Haigen, as head of Clan Alecto, commanded the utmost respect from his clan-mates. He was one of the few to wield Prime equipment and weapons, hand-crafted creations of the Orokin armorers of old. They were designed to be superior to their successors in every way, which gave him an edge on the battlefield few could match. As the silence grew, he looked around the assembled warrior solemnly. No one was presently wearing their helmets, so everyone could see the grim expression he wore.

Follower stood and gave a slow salute.

"Greetings, sir..." he began, but trailed off in the face of the, pardon the pun, icy stare he received in response. Everyone could feel the sweat starting to bead on their faces. Haigen had a reputation of being virtually bipolar. One moment he could be incredibly relaxed and easy-going and the next was a hard-ass comparable to drill sergeants of old Earth. He also did not like wasting time with niceties. He was always a very down-to-business person, and had a tendency to explode at time-wasters.

"We, uh...didn't realize you had returned sir. We were expecting…" Follower almost finished, but again trailed off. Haigen just held his calm, cool stare, as frosty as the suit he wore, belying the fizzing fuse that was no doubt burning underneath. Follower must've heard it because it sent him sinking back into his seat. When he was seated, Haigen turned back to the crowd.

"Brothers and sisters, the Lotus has dire news...but also a great plan, one that she is trusting us to see through. If we succeed, we will shatter the Grineers' hold on Mercury...and perhaps more." The holographic projector at the center of the room flickered to life while the lights dimmed. The Lotus manifested in the midst of the warriors, tall and regal in her purple raiment and robes, her flower-like mask concealing an attractive female visage. The Tenno immediately all rose and bowed.

While the Lotus was appeared as a simple woman in purple, she was, in fact, a vastly powerful AI connected to an information-gathering network and assisted by some of the most powerful quantum computers ever built. She managed their affairs and provided them with information on where they were needed and when. However, Clan Alecto respected anyone who was willing to give their life for the cause, and that was exactly what the Lotus had done. Once she had been human, until the Orokin asked her to take up the role of guide and guardian of the Tenno. In exchange for her services she would be granted digital immortality, itself, both a gift and a curse. She had accepted, and despite the trials of the ages, had never wavered in her services to them. To be Lotus was to be like a Tenno, after a fashion. For both, only in death did duty end. Now she was speaking to their Clan personally. Such things did not happen often. With a wave of her hand, the Lotus conjured up an image of a Grineer Galleon.

"Greetings, Clan Alecto." she said, her voice slightly distorted, betraying her pseudo-synthetic nature. "An opportunity has arisen to shatter Grineer control of this region. As you know, Captain Vor left his fortress three months ago, on orders from the Twin Queens to conduct probing raids on the edge of Corpus territory in the vicinity of the Outer Terminus. He now returns in response to the uprisings you have helped to incite."

The fortress the Lotus had mentioned was one the Tenno had attempted to assault before. Three cells had been sent to infiltrate it, deployed by the largest Mountain Clans currently in operation to find and assassinate the Grineer Captain. Their bodies had been found gracing the walls, impaled like grisly warnings and stripped of their Warframes. The memory of the sight still evoked rage in those Tenno who had seen it.

"We have a chance here, Tenno. The death of Captain Vor will result in chaos in the Grineer command network in the region of Mercury, ensuring the revolts continue unabated. The Corpus will achieve some breathing space in the meantime, and we shall reap the benefits of relative balance once more. As you know, we need time for the other Tenno to be found and awakened if we are to reclaim the glory of old...and it is also on that subject that I have contacted you specifically." She waved her hand again and on the Galleon, several regions were highlighted. "Three days ago, a distress beacon was transmitted from within Vor's vessel. It was quickly neutralized, but agents aligned to our cause forwarded me the information and it revealed a startling discovery. Another Tenno has been found, one of your own. And Vor has him."

There was no shouting, no cries of anger and disdain. Tenno weren't the most vocal about their rage, but the air in the room seemed to drop several degrees in temperature as cold fury filled them. The ugly walking corpse had cost those present friends who were like family, and now he DARED in his arrogance to hold one of their own prisoner...there could be only one answer for such a crime: retribution.

Haigen knelt before the Lotus.

"If I may ask, do we know the name of this lost brother of ours?" he inquired. The Lotus nodded.

"He is Atton Ikatel."

It was hard to hear, but to anyone with a Tenno's hearing, it was easy to discern the sound of sixty pairs of hands clenching into fists. Despite missing vast chunks of their memories, many of those present knew the name of Atton Ikatel, for he had been among the founding members of Clan Alecto. He had trained a good portion of the Tenno in the room himself. For him to be in the clutches of the Grineer was an affront to their honor, and they would not tolerate it.

The Lotus paused before continuing.

"Warlord Haigen, choose from your best warriors for this mission. I am calling upon warriors from Clans Shinto and Gallente to supplement your forces. They will attack the ship's vital systems. It is your task to rescue your fellow Tenno. Furthermore, if you can prevent him escaping, you have full authority as dictated by the old code and my personal blessing to bring Vor to justice and see that he is punished for his crimes...by any means you see fit."

Nathan and Follower smiled cruel smiles, as did many of the others present. Such a blessing was like a blanket pardon for whatever they might choose to do Vor. If they had their way, they'd make an example of him and post videos of the results of his punishment on the Corpus-run Civil Information Network that spanned the Origin System.

Rising to his feet, Haigen bowed.

"As you will, milady." he said. With a nod of acknowledgment, the holo-form of the Lotus faded and disappeared. As the lights in the room grew to their normal luminescence, Haigen pointed at Nathan and Follower.

"You two will be on rescue duty. Our brother has returned to us and it is our duty to ensure he comes home safely. Kasumi will be accompanying you, along with Zaeed. Baldur, Gloern and deMarco will be accompanying me. Together we will force the scum out of his hole, and when he attempts to flee with his prize, you will be there to stop him." he commanded, his eyes narrowed, "Together we will make sure Vor does not leave that ship alive."

"Yes, Warlord Haigen." said Nathan and Follower together, slamming their fists to their Warframes' chest-plates and bowing as Clan tradition dictated. Then Haigen stamped his Reaper Prime on the floor.

"This meeting is adjourned." With those orders, the Tenno he had called out moved for the armory, each intent on claiming their helmets and arms for the coming mission. The rest dispersed, returning to their own separate duties.

Follower and Nathan progressed at a leisurely pace, allowing most of their fellow Tenno warriors to move ahead of them. However, a few hung back to form groups, so as to discuss the new information the Lotus had imparted. Many of these broke off on different routes until Follower and Nathan were alone.

"I can't believe it took this long to finally get a window to assassinate that upright corpse." Follower growled. He had been in charge of a number of slave-liberation operations on Elion, one of Mercury's satellite colonies. What he had seen had filled him with such rage and bile that he had turned over the remaining Grineer to the slaves instead of executing them as was dictated by the Tenno code. The Bitch Queens, as many Tenno referred to the twin monarchs of the Grineer Empire, cared little for those they ruled, seeking only further conquest, as if war was the only thing that mattered. Those humans under their rule deemed 'too weak' to add to their polluted, overextended gene-pool for cloning, along with any aliens, were treated as little better than slaves, made to work in munitions plants and mines until they died of hunger, thirst, disease, or for the twisted amusement of their overseers, their blood oiling the Grineer war machine.

"The bastard has Atton on his ship. There's no fucking way he's getting out this alive." This time, one could easily hear the gauntlets of the Rhino Warframe creak under the pressure as the Tenno tightened his fists.

"He's going to pay my friend. With every ounce of what passes for blood in his veins and every remaining pound of flesh on his bones, he will pay for this insult. However, I can't help but wonder how he managed to find Atton. Our last records, despite the fact that they're filled with holes, put him in the vicinity of Jupiter, not the Outer Termin-"he was cut off as they descended some steps only for Nathan to become entangled in what appeared to be an enormous spider-web.

Follower put his hand to his face at the sight, muttering, "Seriously, why now?"

Nathan just laughed. A slim figure in a Nyx Warframe bounded out from behind a nearby pillar and pirouetted in front of Nathan. Kasumi Goto, known as 'the Kitsune' to her friends, walked a pair of fingers up Nathan's chest.

"Gotcha!" she giggled. He shrugged. The massive spider-web dissolved into nothing more than pure thought. Kasumi might be a master of mental illusions, but Nathan had the uncanny ability to cut through them with the same ease he cut through Grineer Lancers.

"You had me convinced there…" Nathan chuckled, "…for all of six seconds. That's a new record Kassie."

The Nyx-clad assassin draped her arms around her amour's neck.

"You're no fun when you play hard to get." she pouted.

"Would you have me any other way?" he asked, grinning. She kissed him.

"Can you two love-birds do this later?" Follower grumbled. Nathan straightened up.

"You're right of course, Folls. We have a lost comrade to retrieve." He said, suddenly all business.

There was a loud whistle from the far end of the hall, causing the three to look over at a tall Vauban-clad man with one blind eye and a grizzled beard.

"Oi! Didn't you hear the purple lady!? Let's move!" The three rolled their eyes. Zaeed Massani was as grizzled as they came, beard not withstanding, and liked to think of himself as the only one in any cell he was assigned to with some tactical sense. That and he loved to blow things up. Follower tapped his friend's shoulder.

"Remind me, why do we have to bring along this old geezer?" he asked, feigning a whisper, "I mean, he's only going to slow us down."

Zaeed's snorted with derision.

"You want to spend the rest of your days staring at a locked door, be my guest."

Follower grinned. He and Zaeed were old hands at the business of banter. They'd worked together a great deal in the days since they had reawakened.

"Dunno, I could always try busting through them with my fists." he suggested.

"Good luck with that." Zaieed chuckled.

"Broke into your room pretty easily didn't I?" Follower retorted.

"Enough of this gay banter, let us make hither to the armory..." Nathan said in a faux-British accent, which earned him a smack from Follower.

"Stop imitating that ancient lingo." he growled as Nathan rubbed the back of his head, "I won't say it again."

"It's your own fault. You should never have let him bring that archeological material back." Kasumi giggled. Nathan looked like he was about to protest, so Follower raised his again. "Do you want another slap? I WILL hurt you." Nathan opened his mouth. He shut it, then opened it, then shut it again and finally shrugged.

"Everyone's a critic." he mumbled.

**Location: Local Cluster, Origin System, Solar Periphery, Clan Alecto Dojo, Communal Armory**

The armory was a rather large chamber, made up of a short corridor with twenty alleys to each side. These alleys were separated by thick walls, with five half-cylindrical indentations along each wall on either side. Each one had a name inscribed along it's inner curve on the floor in High Orokin, marking which Clan member it belonged. Though it didn't look it, each indentation was in essence a locker, stocked with the weapons its proscribed Tenno had procured, purchased, built or stolen.

At the far end of the primary corridor was Haigen's niche, where he now knelt on a glowing pad as his weapons were 'retrieved' from storage. His tools of choice were a Latron Prime designated marksman rifle and a Lato Prime pistol to compliment his Reaper Prime scythe.

Upon entry, the chosen Tenno separated and entered their personal niches. The weapons were stored as energy patterns in a molecular buffer, much like the way a Tenno could store a captive for transport in the matrices of their own Warframe. One only needed to select and prepare the weapon they desired and it would be reconstituted, ready for use. Such technology was rare, if not unheard of in this post-Orokin environment they found themselves in, and they all thanked whatever divinity was listening that it was. If the Corpus or the Grineer were ever to unlock the secrets of such science, they would be able to bolster their numbers and power to such an extent that they would have no need for tactics...they would only need to drown their enemies in sheer firepower.

For Kasumi, there was a Boltor rifle, a pair of Bolto pistols and last but not least, a Glaive, the very symbol of the Tenno order. Nathan had had it made as a gift for her when they had regained their memories of love for each other a while ago. The weapon was modeled after the one wielded by the immortal hero who had inspired the creation of the Tenno as an order, Hayden Tenno. His glaive had been said to be crafted from his very flesh, the only flesh in history to not just resist the corruption of the Technocyte Plague, but the first to successfully bond with it, in a fashion that even the Orokin, for all their wisdom, could not replicate.

Kasumi's weapon was, by comparison, a bit more demure, and was composed of morphics, nano spores and alloy plating. All the same, it took years to master its use, and very few ever achieved the honor of wielding it in combat. Kasumi had mastered it in under a week, and had, on one occasion, proudly used it to slice through an entire unfortunate column of Grineer Lancers in one throw.

Nathan, on the other hand, chose a pair of Grineer Gremlins, brutish in design and vicious in application, like all their weapons, which was precisely what he sought on this mission. They were accompanied by a weapon he'd stolen from a Grineer lab on Caloris, along with the blueprints of the Gremlins. It was a burst-fire rifle that worked on the same principles as the Gremlins, plus Detonite-infused tips on its projectiles, earning it the moniker of 'Goblin'. So far, copies of it had yet to turn up on the battlefield, making it a valuable and unique instrument of death.

The same was somewhat true for his melee weapon, a Nikana, and not just any Nikana, but a Dragon Nikana. The Orokin-designed katana was a weapon of a master swordsman, and those that existed were held largely by those Tenno who had progressed beyond their eighth promotion. Nathan of course was several ranks above that, but unlike other Nikanas, he had had had his inscribed with the Babylonian Questions, a the cornerstones of a famous philosophical text from his home, the Babylon Colony, which he had last seen over six-hundred years ago. For him, the sword was more than just a weapon, it was a totem, one of several which had helped him reclaim portions of his memory, a fact that made it the envy of many of his friends.

As he finished arming himself, he looked over his shoulder at his companions, distracted briefly by Kasumi as she put her weapons in their places before glancing at Follower.

"So, are you going to singe our eyebrows by bringing along your Heat Sword again?"

Instead of answering, the blue Rhino-clad warrior conjured up a Soma assault rifle, a deadly Tenno weapon that was famously almost always loaded with hollow-point rounds capable of inflicting gruesome and lingering wounds. The duo of heavy Lex hand-cannons he then produced added to his firepower. As he clipped them to his thighs with his Warframe's magnetic holsters and attached the rifle on his back with the same system, his melee weapon appeared, a pole with long, elegantly curved blades affixed to either end, facing opposite directions.

"No, not today." he responded, taking hold of the weapon's shaft, "Today we're going to make a bigger mess."

The staff was known as an Orthos, a weapon both deadly and precise, yet requiring decades to master. Follower didn't often take it out, but when he did, it was because he was in the mood for some sensational slaughter. Nathan eyed the weapon. He couldn't blame Follower for the need to create some mayhem and satisfy his urge to reap revenge for Vor's crimes. He felt much the same as a matter of fact.

"Just try not to get too much blood on me when you use that thing." he warned. Follower snorted.

"This from the man who I've seen cut five Grineer Lancers into eighty pieces in the space of a heartbeat." he retorted.

"You all ready?" Zaeed asked, swaggering over from his own armory station. Always the fastest when it came to picking the right tools for the right job, he had chosen to a pair of outmoded, but still relatively-effective Corpus Alta plasma pistols and a Corpus Dera rifle, both of which rated well when used against Grineer armor. He topped off his assets with a Prova shock-stick, the favored melee tool of the Corpus Security Guild's Prod Crewmen. Zaieed fought dirty with the thing, first electrocuting his foes with its arcing length before smacking them over the head, or just dancing around them and tormenting them with it, half to irritate them and half to drive them into a rage (always an effective means of breaking their concentration). It also made an effective battlefield interrogation tool. When there wasn't time or a reason for bringing someone back to base for a more thorough 'extraction' session, the Prova was a handy means of getting knowledge without muss (though usually there was a bit of fuss).

He wasn't above using it on people who annoyed him either. It's variable charge meant he could safely use it to give his friends a casual zap when he felt slighted. It was all in good humor, especially when Follower punched his lights out for doing it to him, earning a laugh from those watching.

"More than ready." Kasumi replied, "Let's roll."

With their weapons equipped, the quartet of warriors emerged from their storage stations. Haigen raised his hand in salute as they passed.

"Go with courage, Tenno. Bring our brother home safely." They bowed and made their way to the hangar, where their rides were waiting.

**Location: Horse Head Nebula, Noveria, Corpus Terraforming Outpost C-315F**

**Date: June 19. 672 P.C.**

The day had not gone well for Cadmus Vakarian. As a Spectre, he was used to plans going awry and this was no exception...but out of all the missions he'd been on, none had ever gone quite this badly. STG intelligence had said that the Corpus were setting up a base in this sector. With the Council being pushed back on all fronts by this new enemy, it was decided a Spectre should investigate the situation. It was supposed to be an intelligence-gathering operation.

Unfortunately, the Corpus had detected their reentry vector and anti-aircraft fire had brought them down. Those not killed in the crash had scattered across landscape, doing their best to survive and find a place to regroup. Noveria, as the Corpus called it, was an ice-ball, with low temperatures, but that suited the Corpus fine. Patterns showed that they set up shop on similar worlds wherever possible. The few that lived through the first freezing night gathered at an unmanned terraforming station. The only occupants had been a few MOAs, set to patrol the perimeter, easy to slip past. Thankfully interior was well-heated, mostly because one of the chief components of the station was a network of fusion-powered thermal heaters designed to help raise the planetary temperature.

It must have been the soothing warmth that made Cadmus drop his guard after a night in the chilling wastelands outside. They had stayed one night, planning to use the station's equipment to try and find a way off the planet. That was all it had taken for a Corpus Security Guild transport carrying a force of MOAs, a few Crewmen and four Techs to arrive, apparently to conduct a routine maintenance check. Their tampering with certain systems had been discovered shortly after and a vicious game of varren and pyjak had started as the Corpus soldiers and their machines began to track down and eliminate his remaining team members one by one.

Now only he and four others remained. He'd taken refuge with two of them in this service bay. The place was little more than a pit, illuminated by the dull, indirect blue lighting the Corpus favored, a rectangular room about the size of a small shuttle bay. MOAs were programmed to come here every night for a systems checkup, to make sure the ice and snow was not interfering with their functions. The chamber wasn't much of a choke point, but he was hoping that if he could lure some of his enemies in here, he could take out enough of them to perhaps even the odds just a tiny bit. Now, back pressed to the railing that ran along the catwalk encircling the chamber one level up, he tried to relax as he heard the sound of the pneumatic door systems under him hiss. The clomping of heavy boots mixed with clanking sounds and the nearly inaudible whine of servos told him it was one of the Techs, with an escort force of MOAs. Two more sets of boots became clear in the midst of the sounds, their footsteps smaller, indicating Crewmen.

He took a deep breath and rose from cover, centering his rifle's sights on the back of the Corpus Tech, aiming for the left part of the chest. He had long since ceased to aim for their helmets, and shooting them in the back was only marginally easier because they had a utility pack there to get in the way. The polymer composite they were made of was all but immune to mass accelerator fire. The only time he had ever seen one destroyed was from a Krogan's Graal Spike-Thrower, fired three times at point-blank range. Thankfully they didn't have full suits made out of the stuff. The Corpus as a whole relied heavily on their exotic energy shields to protect them. While this would normally be good news, the design of the shields meant they were far more resistant to gunfire than even the best kinetic barriers. He released his breath and feathered the trigger of his Armax Punisher sniper rifle. The weapon, for all its penetrating power, needed at least two shots to punch through Corpus shielding.

The Tech reeled, and instantly the troupe of MOAs escorting him spread out, seeking a target. Cadmus ducked back behind cover. He heard the whine of a capacitor charging and seconds later a hail of plasma bolts burned through the air where he had been. He growled with anger. That was another advantage the Blockheads had over Council forces. Their helmets, in addition to being virtually impenetrable, contained a complex set of sensor and control systems that allowed the user to command any of the robotic proxy-units the Corpus favored in addition to possessing heat- and night-vision, plus a built-in zoom function that could link them directly to their weapon's scope. It made them incredibly difficult to ambush. It was why he had chosen to attack from behind and above. It was their biggest blind spot, and the best chance he had of scoring a lucky kill. Unfortunately, luck did not appear to be with him now any more than it had when he had landed.

He stuck to cover until he heard the sound of another mass accelerator firing twice. The Tech screamed as the super-sonic projectiles punched through his heart. The ground trembled a little as the eight-foot tall warrior collapsed. Immediately, the MOAs around him fell back to basic programming and tried to beat an orderly retreat while the two Crewmen raced for whatever cover they could find.

"Now!" Cadmus hissed into his helmet's radio. Instantly the doors around the chamber slammed shut, their status lights turning red, magnetic locks slamming into place. He allowed himself the Turian equivalent of a grin. Rael had come through. The Corpus' heavy use of robotics had meant that ever since the start of the war, Quarians had become high in demand, particularly those good with computers. The Corpus systems were deviously complex, and very few other beings than Quarians had necessary skills to crack them.

Undeterred, the MOAs tried to regroup. Cadmus didn't let them. In synch, he and his compatriot, Xenari Severus, popped out of cover and began to fire on the slender-legged machines. They managed to down five out of the ten present before the machines got organized and laid down suppressing fire. Supported by their organic overseers, they poured plasma into his cover. Cadmus ground his mandibles and tried to seek cover, moving in a crouch to the right towards a group of stacked cargo crates. The rails surrounding the catwalk were affixed with metal plates, which gave him shelter. They also had gaps too though, which meant he got singed when two bright blue-white bolts made it through one of the openings, nearly taking his arm off. He was almost to the stack when one of the doors on his level of the room opened, the one right in front of him and on the side opposite his new cover, disgorging a fresh group of MOAs, two of which were orange and taller than their companions. He shifted himself up against the railing to get the crates between himself and the machines while the plates covering his left side warded off any plasma bolts from below.

The orange MOAs let out awful electronic shrieks and charged towards him, stopping just short of him to raise one foot. Cadmus swore under his breath and tried to scrabble away without breaking cover, which was technically impossible since to escape what was coming he'd need to-

Too late.

The feet came down and the ground shook as they unleashed two expanding orange rings of force that blew him off his feet and sent him rolling across the deck. He HATED Shockwave MOAs. His head rang as he tried to recover from the pulse wave and rolled aside to avoid an untimely vaporization, getting the large green-black crates back between himself and his foes. He dropped his rifle and pulled out his Brawler pistol, firing with the precision of a veteran. The shots bounced off the MOAs' shields, they lost their targeting lock long enough for him to escape to the cover of the crates. He opened a channel to the rest of his team.

"Rael!" he shouted furiously, "How, in the name of the Titans, did they crack your lockout?!"

"What do you mean?" the Quarian asked, baffled, "My Omni-Tool says the room's secure!"

"Well they managed to get MOAs onto the upper level and I'm pinned down!" he shouted. The whine of plasma bolts made it hard to be heard. He peeked out long enough to down another MOA.

"Oh...oh, this bosh'tet piece of varren-shit. I used the fire-suppression system to lock the room down!" he responded, voice filled with self-critical anger.

"So!?" Cadmus cried, trying his hand at taking out one of the two Crewmen below. He barely missed a stream of plasma aimed at this head as he ducked back into cover. He'd gotten the bastard's shields down, but he'd managed to track the source of the incoming fire faster than Cadmus had expected and stopped him from finishing him with a double-tap to the heart.

"So, it's only programmed to keep out organics. MOAs and Ospreys are allowed in to deal with the fire." Rael explained. Cadmus swore again, longer this time, and louder. He tried to peek out and get a bead on the Crewman again, only to see the Blockhead arming a plasma grenade. He swore again. He was trapped on his right and moving backwards or to the left would open him up to the MOAs, which were keeping him pinned down. The Crewman drew back his arm to throw the device...just before Xenari unleashed a biotic singularity. Cadmus was astonished. Xenari had been running on empty up until now. He hadn't the faintest idea where she had gotten the strength for such an attack...but he wasn't about to waste it.

Dragged upwards by the distorted gravity of an intense mass effect field the Corpus tried to throw the grenade, before Cadmus shot him in the helmet, throwing off his aim. The device went off in his hand and the alien soldier fell to the ground, smoking and very, very dead, along with two MOAs that had been too close to him. He saw Xenari out of cover. He couldn't see her face behind her mask, but he could imagine the awful strain of holding up the biotic ability. He checked his equipment and found he had one last frag grenade, plus three plasma grenades he'd looted from some dead Crewmen. He pulled each, one at a time, armed them, and then tossed them into the largest groups of MOAs he could see.

The explosions took out three MOAs each, but much to Cadmus' rage and despair, more arrived to replace them soon after. He heard Rael's voice distantly as he continued to fight, shouting something about the lockdown being overidden. He never saw the boot coming as the Crewman kicked him in the side of the head, knocking him to the ground. He tried to rise, just in time to see Xenari beaten down by shock prod-wielding Corpus troops in green vac-suits before a current of pain flowed through his nerves and he collapsed, writhing in agony. He heard the Corpus shouting in their alien language, and as the darkness took him, thought of his wife Carissa and their children, who would never know how their father died. Then a fresh jolt of pain filled his body and he knew no more.

_O' mighty tyrants, tremble,_

_shaken to your cores._

_From an age you thought forgotten,_

_the Tenno stride to war._

-first transmission from Clan Eidolon Dojo, first to reawaken, 634 A.C.-

A/N: This is a test chapter for our rewrite of The Warframe Effect. As you will note, the second section takes place thirty years after the first. This is because it is in fact a 'flash-forward'. We will be incorporating large chunks of the original work in addition to new material until we catch up to where we were before. The problem faced by the old story was that it was attempting to introduce elements of a fixed universe (the ME series is not receiving new content right now) to a universe in motion (the Warframe universe is still under construction). The only answer was to jump ahead and create a more fixed and unmoving version of the WF universe, in such a way that we could still add new content as it appears without compromising story structure, and get more into the ME side of things. I'm thinking about working on the timeline some more and fixing up Codex entries for the new races that will inevitably be introduced (don't worry, there won't be many, at most...four active, but as many as we want when it comes to extinct ones). That will come later though. For now, relax, and enjoy the majesty of high-quality storytelling...nope, couldn't say it with a straight face. XD

P.S. If anyone has something they want to see a codex entry on, post the request in reviews. Also 'P.C' stands for Post-Collapse.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_The arrogance of every military leader lies in the belief that on some level the battle is in his control...when in fact it is the other way around. The only truth is that nothing is certain._

-Fleet Admiral Zet Kur of the Orokin Imperial Navy, 3281 I.A.-

**Location: Local Cluster, Origin System, Orbit of Mercury, Aboard the Personal Galleon of Captain Co Vor**

**Date: September 23, 643 P.C.**

The Grineer were not known for their skill with creating things pleasing to the eye. Everything they built had what could be only described as a cancerous aesthetic, with everything from their guns to their buildings looking like nothing so much as giant tumors. The personal Galleon of Captain Co Vor was no exception. The thing had the appearance of a great ugly insect, trawling its way between the stars with dozens of long sensor masts that could have been legs or possibly even oars to the untrained eye, sticking out at forty-five degrees in great arcs along its sides. It looked impenetrable. For anyone else it might have been.

For a Tenno, the key word was 'looked'.

In the bowels of the mighty Grineer vessel, there was a slicing sound as a sword cut through the blades of a slowly-turning air-circulation fan. Bits of metal spun loose and clanked to the ground. If anyone had been around, they would have undoubtedly noticed, but Tenno were more careful than that. This particular sector was considered storage space, and thus lightly manned. As the bits of machinery settled, out of the vent dropped four Tenno, landing like cats with little more than a quiet thud.

Follower stretched. He had been the most confined in his bulky Rhino Warframe. Usually Grineer architecture was riddled with air vents more than large enough for a man to walk through. The one they had just exited however had been quite cramped, forcing them into single file.

"The Grineer must be learning. I barely fit through that deathtrap." he grumbled. Of course, anyone nearby would've sworn they hadn't heard anything. Tenno helmets were perfectly sound-proof and they rarely spoke in battle as a matter of course. They had an image to maintain after all, that of silent, implacable warriors whose power was as inevitable as entropy. As they stretched a bit to get the cramp out of their muscles, a computerized voice entered the helmets of the Tenno warriors.

"Alright Tenno, your squad is tasked with finding and, if possible, rescuing your Tenno brother-in-arms. Once he is safe, you are authorized to assist your Warlord in bringing down Vor himself. The other cells have been tasked with destroying this vessel's reactor and raiding the storage areas for anything potentially of Orokin origin." It was the Lotus. As keeper and manager of Tenno affairs, it was not only her job to provide them with information outside combat, but in the middle of it as well. To this end, she directed reminders and tactical data on the battlefield to ensure her charges survived whatever their enemies threw at them.

None of the Tenno responded to her words. A response was unnecessary. They knew that stealth was to be maintained as long as possible, and despite their particular group holding the record for the shortest time to breaking stealth in the Clan whenever they worked together, they were going to try their best to avoid disappointing their Warlord. Drawing their weapons, they started moving towards the waypoint marked on their HUDs, guiding them towards their brother and mentor via the short-range energy signature unique to Tenno cryo-pods.

Nathan clicked open the comm as they wound through the towering stacks of munitions crates, sweeping every corner and keeping an eye on their HUDs' motion sensors.

"Let's do this fast. Don't fall behind. If you see any Grineer, mark them and try to breach their comms. That way if we have to kill them, they won't be able to radio for backup." Looking over his shoulder he said.

"We know how to keep a low profile." Follower muttered, irritated at Nathan's sudden assumption of authority. He did rank higher than Follower, having reached the level of Gold Seeker in his service to the Empire before its collapse, but whenever they worked together, the two often produced friction over the matter of who told who what to do. Follower was a proud warrior, sometimes vindictive, while Nathan was always a study in striving for virtue and determination. They never let it mess with their combat efficiency, but it had a tendency to crop up in situations such as this.

They progressed through the tall stacks of crates largely unhindered, right up until a pair of Grineer Lancers and a Trooper marched right past them, coming within a hair's-breadth of spotting them as they prepared to enter a T-shaped intersection. As soon as the three appeared on their HUDs, they pressed themselves up against the line of crates to their left, the same direction from which the clone soldiers were approaching. They ambled past without so much as a glance, chattering in their brusque, harsh language. The Tenno kept an eye on them until they were safely out of view and had turned the corner into another alley of stacked crates.

"Keeps on your toes, all this sneaking around." Zaeed muttered.

"Funny you should say that since Grineer don't have toes." Follower chuckled, trying to smooth over their near-discovery.

"True enough." Zaeed admitted, before adding: They're also all flat-footed."

"Makes catching them off guard all the easier." Kasumi giggled. They continued their movement, a line of post-human assassins dancing around patrols like a witch through raindrops, never getting caught...right up until they reached the huge cargo bay's exit. It was being monitored by a security camera linked to a mag-discharger, a device that generated a permeable, nearly invisible barrier designed to strip anyone that passed through of their shields and whatever energy their equipment might hold. This wouldn't have been a problem had there not been two Troopers and six Lancers guarding the round metal portal.

"Fuck." Nathan muttered, "I was hoping we'd be able to get through one room without having to fire a shot." He turned to Kasumi and beckoned her forward.

"Alright, Kassie, work your magic. We need them out of the way." he said, then glanced at Follower and added: "And keep them away from any control panels. If we can take out the camera and the guards without the alarm sounding we can avoid-"

"Reinforcements. Right, I get it." Follower growled. He took the time to breach the Grineer soldiers' communications, ensuring that if killed, they would not be missed, uploading a repeating, self-modifying audio loop to their supervisors that would maintain the illusion of them checking in whenever their orders required.

"Got it." he said as he finished. "They'll tell no tales."

Kasumi nodded in acknowledgment. Then reached out into the mind of one of the Troopers. Grineer minds were clay, weak and easily molded. Their thoughts were crude, little more than hammers and axes compared to hers, which might, for the sake of continuing the metaphor, be described as a cabinet full of every sharp piece of metal you could imagine. For this one, she used a stiletto, sliding into the thought-processes of one of the Troopers with barely a ripple in his mental pond.

There's a Tenno about to land on your back., she said in his head, masking the idea's source with his own prejudices, leaving him convinced that the idea was not only his own, but true. The trooper, who had been holding position on the right side of the door, suddenly spun in a panic and blindly fired his shotgun at the door and everywhere around it, the notion that he was about to be stabbed by an unseen enemy filling every nook and cranny of his mind. Instantly the formation of Grineer soldiers fell into chaos as they all tried to subdue their comrade, too late to stop him taking out the camera.

"Now, let's pour some salt in the wound." Kasumi chuckled. She reached out again and seized command of the mind of one of the Lancers, using the basic Mind Control technique that every Nyx knew to override his inhibitions and force him to fire into the ranks of his fellow warriors, convinced that they were his enemies. Instantly, his compatriots turned their weapons on him, shredding him with hundreds of hollow-point Grakata rounds. The Trooper Kasumi had previously used was caught in the crossfire as well, and moments later the formation was down by two soldiers, leaving five Lancers and one Trooper still standing.

The remaining Trooper ran for the nearest control console.

"Take him down!" Nathan growled. Follower reacted first, taking one of his Lex pistols and putting a hole in the head of the runner. As soon as the shot was fired, the remaining Lancers turned to face the source of the sound.

"Break cover!" Nathan shouted over the radio, and pulled out his Gremlins. He'd loaded the weapons with shatter-bolt rounds, special ammunition made for _boltkaan_ weapons like the Gremlins, designed to split into multiple spikes in-flight. He opened up on the nearest Lancer without hesitation, instantly propelling the heavily-armored warrior off his feet and through the air, pinning him to the wall with a dozen steel rods. Kasumi followed his lead with her Bolto pistols, nailing two more Lancers to the bulkhead. The remaining two went down before they could even aim, cut down by Zaeed's Alta pistols.

"And that is how you do it!" laughed Follower, kicking one of the corpses. Immediately, the body began to dissolve, the flesh becoming liquid and the armor vaporizing as the built-in sanitation systems of the Grineer warriors kicked in. The Grineer had little care for their individual soldiers. In their view, it was easier to reduce a body to raw materials and clean it up later for recycling, rather than leave it where it fell as an overweight, heavily-armored obstruction.

As he said the words, an alarm began to sound from hidden speakers overhead. A gruff Grineer voice began to bellow out warnings in their harsh language. Nathan turned to face Follower with a glare that was invisible behind his helmet, but could be felt all the same.

"What the fuck!?" Follower exploded, "How in the name of the Void-"

"Doesn't matter." Nathan grumbled, putting away his Gremlins and pulling out his Goblin rifle, "We could've been seen or heard by a lucky observer, or it could've been one of the other teams. Either way, they know we're here."

"Which means we're running out of time." Zaeed agreed, putting away his own pistols to shoulder his Dera.

"Let's move." Nathan said.

**Location: Local Cluster, Origin System, Orbit of Mercury, Aboard the Personal Galleon of Captain Co Vor**

Three decks up, Haigen and his team had found themselves in a far trickier situation. Their exit had landed them in the middle of a swarm of Lancers and Butchers. Though they had easily fended them off, three of the Grineer close-combat specialists had beat a hasty retreat. Haigen had caught one, hitting him with a Freeze dart that instantly turned him into a fatally frostbitten sculpture which broke into pieces as it toppled over. Baldur Keraat, the squad's Loki-wearer, had done a Switch Teleport with another, getting him in range of Haigen's Reaper Prime, which took his head off with extreme prejudice. Yet for all their running, the last had made it to the control panel and sounded the alarm. As the Butcher turned, he hurled his Grineer Cleaver at Haigen, who dodged, letting the weapon imbed itself in the far wall before he blew the soldier's brainpan open with a well-placed shot from his Latron Prime.

The sound of warnings in the harsh tongue of the Grineer began to bellow from the overhead speaker systems, calling the Galleon's crew to arms.

"This is Haigen to all other squads, prepare for incoming hostiles." he grudgingly announced over the Tenno-only helmet network he shared in. He didn't mention that it had been him who allowed the alarm system to be tripped, but someone would work it out eventually. He cursed his own slowness before swearing not to let it happen again.

"Keep to the objective." he stated calmly to his immediate squad-mates. The plan was to take out the primary coolant pumps when the reactor went down, courtesy of a squad from Clan Shinto. When Haigen and his squad sabotaged the pumps, coolant would flood the ship as pipes ruptured in response to increasing pressure. It would reduce the shield capacity of the Tenno, but it would also slow down the Grineer, and one of the biggest advantages the Tenno had over Grineer was their speed and maneuverability. Furthermore, it would shut down the systems Vor was using to keep Atton's cryo-pod inactive and its occupant asleep.

Haigen had worked that one out for himself. If the cryo-pod had sent out a distress signal, it was because it had been tampered with. Tampering likely meant damage, and when damaged, the pod was designed to wake and release its occupant. Vor doubtlessly had enough understanding of Orokin technology to halt the cycle, but doing so would further damage the cooling systems of the pod, meaning he'd have to use his ship's coolant network to take up the slack. If Haigen busted the pumps, the trapped Tenno would begin to thaw on their own, and eventually Atton would break free. Vor's only chance of keeping his prize would be to flee to a shuttle and try to use its systems to stop the cycle again...and when he did, Nathan, Follower, Kasumi and Zaeed would be waiting for him.

**Location: Horse Head Nebula, Interstellar Space, Aboard Unknown Corpus Freighter**

**Date: June 20, 672 P.C.**

Cadmus awoke to the shock of a needle puncturing his neck, filling him with an unnatural vigor and clarity, dragging him back into consciousness. He gasping and jerked, half-expecting to awake to the view you got when strapped to a dissection table or some equally unpleasant sight. He was not disappointed, though his guess about the dissection table was wrong. He was sitting in a cell, cold and alone, obviously aboard a Corpus vessel. The huge window to his left was a dead giveaway. Outside, the stars twinkled without the mixed blessing of intelligence, heedless to his situation. He had never been a religious man, but right now, he felt compared to offer a prayer to any god that might take it. That he was willing to do this spoke to how bad his situation was.

Any hope he had of rescue was minimal at best. The Council rarely recovered prisoners alive from Corpus captivity. They were very efficient like that. As his vision cleared and the aches and pains of his last battle queued up to make themselves known, he tried to examine his surroundings further. The cell was dark, with that irritating offset lighting that was so common in Corpus architecture. From somewhere in front of him came the sound of boots on deck plating and slurred alien speech that sounded like it was coming through a broken translator. Suddenly there was a click and the voice became a clear, harsh monotone speaking in flawless Basic Pavalese.

"State your name for the record." it commanded. Feeling as though his throat was lined with wet toweling, Cadmus responded on instinct.

"Vakarian, Cadmus. Special Tasks and Reconnaissance, service number 9833-5434-7893." he recited, then clamped his mandibles shut. They would get nothing further from him, that much he swore.

"Excellent." said the voice. Cadmus' vision had improved enough for him to see exactly who was speaking now. There was a Corpus male standing in front of him flanked by two Crewmen and a another Corpus in a long white coat with several pouches on its person. The speaker had no helmet, but Cadmus could see the collar section of one featured as part of its garb. A small holographic display was being projected in front of the speaker's face from the collar and he could also see, as he spoke again, that his lips did not move in time with his words. In the back of his mind, he wondered at the ghastly tricks of evolution that had caused this species to resemble Asari so deeply.

"Assuming that was your name and rank, and that it follows the same patterns as that of most militaries, Cadmus Vakarian, you are an enemy combatant and an attempted saboteur, found to be working against the interests to the Corpus and all its shareholders."

"Why am I not dead?" he asked. The speaker stretched out an arm and tapped a small console affixed to his wrist. Pain shot through Cadmus and for the first time, he noticed the collar fastened around his neck, big and bulky and connected to some sort of power pack strapped to his back. The collar glowed a dull blue around its circumference and buzzed a low, threatening buzz as agony gripped his nervous system. Then the speaker tapped his wrist-controls again, causing the pain the cease its circulation through his body.

"You are not permitted to speak. You are an enemy combatant and since you were found trespassing on the property of the Honorable Board of Directors, you are subject to Corpus law." intoned the cold, mechanical voice of the translator. Cadmus winced. He didn't like the sound of where this was going.

"You will be held here until further notice and remain monitored at all times." it continued, "If you leave your cell, the restraining bolt will subdue you. If you leave the ship without authorization, say, by way of being rescued, the plasma charge strapped to your back will detonate. You and your fellow saboteurs are now, by Corpus law, property of the Honorable Board of Directors, who have sentenced all of you to be transferred to a research and development facility in need of test subjects. You will remain there until you expire. Do you understand?"

Cadmus ground his mandibles together, then roared with pain as the bastard repeated his manipulation of the arm-controls linked to his restraining bolt.

"Y-yes!" he finally spat out. The speaker, probably either the warden or some sort of specialist he finally realized, now wore and expression that made him seethe with fury as he deactivated the collar again. It was on he'd seen on Asari, a smug, cruel smile where the lips perked up on one side of the face in an expression of vicious pleasure. He wanted to spit every curse he could think of in that smirking face, but refrained, because it would only cost him strength he needed if he was ever to escape.

"We are in transit to the facility even now. We expect to arrive in four standard days. Use this time to reflect on your mistakes." the mechanized voice stated. Then without further ado, the speaker, or translator or warden or whatever he was, turned on his heel and strode out of the cell, followed closely by the medic and the two Crewmen. The hydraulic door slammed shut, its status lights turning red as its locking bolts slid into place, leaving Cadmus alone in near-darkness, practically naked and in the worst situation of his career.

"Well...fuck." he growled after a few moments of silence.

_A good soldier knows how to think on his feet. Improvisation is a cornerstone of warfare, and it is a soldier's job to use that cornerstone to beat their enemy's brains out._

-Grand Marshal Hieronymus Baphomet of the Orokin Imperial Guard, 3930 I.A.-

A/N: I know, short chapter, but we're rushing ahead through some material before things take a major leap. The problem with the previous story was that we were trying to merge a static universe (ME, which has ceased growing lore-wise) with a dynamic one (WF, which is still receiving updates). To counter this, we will leap ahead at a certain point to a time where we (Follower and myself) have crafted a static merging of the two universes. The gap will be such that we can insert any new events that might occur into the story should we desire, given it will remain largely vague save for some key points. I won't spoil, but what I'm essentially talking about is Tenno side of the story catching up with Cadmus' adventures, and how, later, our Tenno friends will get to watch our beloved ME characters as the grow up, while shaping the universe they will have their adventures in. Also, to a question by a certain reviewer, no, Tali will not be stuck in a Mag frame. It may sound racist right now, but ONLY Tenno wear Warframes, and there's a good reason for it. As for the Corpus codex, that's coming. I have a rough draft of it all written up. And for further note, humanity will have some alien races of their own by their side when they meet the council, totally original creations that we've put in because the WF lore mentions other species but never shows them.

P.S: I.A. stands for Imperial Age, the golden era of the Orokin Empire, which includes the Sentient War. Who the sentients are in our story...well...you'll see ;)


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

_While most might not see past their obsession with conquest, there is more to the Grineer than meets the eye. They are the spirit of the great conquerors of ancient Earth, distilled into a single force. Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, the Monarchs of Europe; elements of all can be found in their dogma They preach a gospel of 'might makes right' and 'only the strong survive'. They believe that war is the answer and the question, that power comes through suffering alone. The Twin Queens began as pirates operating out of Ceres. Now Earth is their throne, and half the Origin System beneath their heel. Only the Corpus and the ever-present threat of the Infestation keep them in check. Sooner or later, one of those will fold, and when it does, no power in the universe will be able to stop them from fulfilling their twisted manifest destiny._

-from "Interesting Times: A Study of the Long Night", by Arn Etina, former Chief Administrator of the Outer Terminus Reconstruction Project, 631 P.C.-

**Location: Local Cluster, Origin System, Orbit of Mercury, Aboard the Personal Galleon of Captain Co Vor**

**Date: September 23, 643 P.C.**

Captain Co Vor had spent his existence on the edge of the Grineer code. Over his long life, many of his tank-siblings had ridiculed him for his obsession with Orokin relics and his habit of chasing of after the remains of that once-great civilization. He had let their insults and words of abuse simply wash off him like rain, while his 'obsession' carried him up the ranks of the Royal Court. Now, he commanded his own force of warships, and was de facto ruler of Mercury and all its colonies, where the last Orokin towers stood in silent memorial to those who had built them, still strong centuries after the last of the Orokin had gone.

Yet despite the wealth his curiosity had brought him, he had always been faithful to the spirit of the Twin Queens' laws, if not their letter. He was Grineer, and to him, weakness was an anathema. He did not tolerate failure, nor did he suffer defeat. This did not, however, mean he was above retreat.

"Keep the pod steady!" he snapped at his escorts, a mere handful of Elite Lancers he had commandeered for his own use. The vast majority of the surviving crew was trying futilely to hunt down the Tenno saboteurs that had made their way aboard his ship. He cared little for them. They were a means to an end, a distraction so he might escape with his prize. The Grineer had captured many of the slumbering Void-demons, as had the Corpus, but never before had either side laid hands on a Prime. For this stroke of luck he expected to be well-rewarded...provided he could make it out of here alive.

Already the chances of that were dwindling. It hadn't been twenty minutes after the reports of Tenno infiltrators had come in that the primary reactor had scrammed and shut down due to damage. Auxiliary power had remained functional, but it hadn't helped when the coolant pumps had been destroyed, causing the prodigious efforts he had made to keep his prisoner asleep to be rendered moot. After that, he had known that they knew what he had, and he also knew they would stop at nothing to free their ally. Their so-called honor demanded it.

The Elite Lancer he had barked at nodded apologetically and tightened his grip on the handle that had been welded to the pod's surface for ease of transport. Inside, the gold and white warrior remained motionless, but Vor was not fooled. It was only a matter of time before it woke up, and when it did, all the soldiers aboard this ship would be of little help in stopping it.

"Keep up the pace! We are short on time! If any of you fall behind, you had best hope that the Void-demons kill you, because if you survive, I'll see to it you'll wish they had!" he snarled. He increased his stride. They were almost to the shuttle loading bay. Once there, it would be a simple matter to use his rank-override to clear a craft for departure and get it lowered to the launch tubes. Of course, that was assuming that the launch bay personnel were still alive when he got there.

As the column of soldiers turned a corner, a pipe burst overhead and thick, freezing fog began to pour down into the corridor. Vor hissed in irritation. With the coolant systems damaged like they were, such incidents would soon be happening everywhere, and it wouldn't be long before the floor was littered with patches of ice and frozen moisture. It was a blessing as well as a curse, however. Such extreme low temperatures would cripple the shields of the accursed Tenno, making them slightly easier to deal with.

Finally, after descending a set of stairs at what was now nearly a dead run, the Grineer soldiers and their leader came to their destination. The shuttle bay was reflective of the military nature of its builders. It was a large space, open, with two levels, and one set of stairs with two landings as the means of traversing between them. On the starboard side was a deep pit equipped with three lifts set into its sides, all of which led down to a troop mustering area. Closer to the port side, twelve heavy transports sat arranged in four neat rows of three, with two resting on mechanical supports that held them suspended over large doors set into the floor, entrances to the launch tubes beneath the bay.

Vor eyed the bay suspiciously. None of the crew that should have been here were. The place was deserted...and Grineer were not known for abandoning their posts.

"You, you and you!" he commanded, turning to point at three of the Elite Lancers who had been escorting him, "Take two of your comrades each and sweep the chamber. We're not alone. I'm certain of it."

"Yes, Captain!" barked the three soldiers in perfect synchronicity. Vor briefly wished he had managed to recruit a more diverse force for his escape. He would have loved to have some Scorches to flush the Tenno vermin out of their hiding holes, not to mention a Heavy Gunner or two to keep them suppressed should it become necessary. However, bereft of such options, he had to make do with watching as the nine Elite Lancers descended the staircase to the right of the entrance he and his escorts had just used.

As the soldiers began to sweep the chamber, using a grid-based search pattern to clear every angle and corner before pressing on, Vor approached the railing that lined the edges of the upper level, which was essentially made of little more than a raised platform on either side of the room, with a walkway that straddled the main floor. The said walkway was bisected by a small platform hanging from cables set into the ceiling, onto which was bolted a control console for use by technicians. Brown, deep greens and black were the room's prevailing color scheme, with some yellow for the railings and white and red for the various labels and text scattered throughout, written in Grintok, the common tongue of the Grineer, a derivative of Cerenese, the old language of the miners of Ceres. It was blocky and brutish, and many would have said it lacked even the slightest amount of grace, but to Vor's eyes it was a beacon of Grineer strength. Its every syllable, harsh and grating to the ears of others, was like war drums to him, the most beautiful of symphonies.

He didn't get long to appreciate the scenery though. The sounds of gunfire suddenly exploded from amidst the docked ships below. He spun to face his troops, only to find that the door he had been planning to retreat through was now locked, its status lights now a sullen red. He snarled with fury.

"_An'an anowei, shan Tenno!_" he bellowed in Grintok, turning back to face the chamber. He motioned to his escorts, directing them to spread out along the chamber's upper level so that the whole of the lower floor was covered by overlapping fields of fire. Compliantly, they moved to obey. Vor pulled back behind them, sticking close to the cryogenic capsule, unwilling to let his unseen enemy make off with his treasure.

"Do not allow the abominations to escape you, brothers. Root them out and kill them!" he bellowed. Seconds later, flurry of metal spikes arced up from amongst the parked shuttles in a trajectory that imbedded them in the face of one of the Elite Lancers that had edged his way out onto the walkway that straddled the room. The bolts carried him backwards over the far side of the railing to crash to the deck far below, dead as Kubrow dung. Vor winced with his one good eye and clasped a hand to the heavy golden Orokin Tower Key that was fixed to his chest. Apart from the cryopod and its contents, it was the only other thing in the room that he valued more than his own life.

He heard the whoosh of air before he saw its cause. Like a specter from the Void, the white and dark-gray Excalibur-clad Tenno seemed to appear as if from nowhere on the lowest stairs off to his left side, before it jumped fifty feet into the air, a pair of unidentified _boltkaan_ weapons resembling industrial rivet guns in its grip as it somersaulted up over his head to land eight feet off to his right. It spun with unnatural grace, raking his escorts with dozens of metal spikes. Vor howled with rage, then gripped the golden device on his right breast tightly, calling upon its power in a demonstration of why he valued it so very much.

Moments later he was out of reach for the faceless warrior and standing atop the closest shuttle, a cloud of ashen smoke dissipating around him. He ground his aged teeth, feeling one chip as he did so, the pain only adding to his fury. He was cut off, with most if not all of his men now decorating the bulkhead in grisly displays of death. A more sensible person might've surrendered at this point…but Vor was Grineer, and when trapped, Grineer did not surrender.

"_RA'AS SEEGA, TENNO!_" he roared in Grintok, and drew the Cronus ceramic-Ferrite sword he kept by his side at all times. He twirled it a couple times and swept it in an arc in front of him, challenging the Void-bred cowards to face him while pulling his custom half-Orokin, half-Grineer Seer pistol from his belt.

"I am waiting for you, scum." he declared, "You are no match for me!"

Nathan hissed with annoyance as Vor disappeared in a cloud of smoke and purple lightning, only to reappear on the roof of one of the shuttles below.

"What the fuck?!" Zaeed exclaimed as he observed the event from behind the cover provided by one of the shuttles.

"Don't let it phase you." Nathan responded, "The Lotus warned us that he had Orokin technology, we just didn't know how well he understood it."

"What do we do? We have no plan of approach, and no real idea of his capabilities." Follower pointed out.

"Yeah," Kasumi added glumly, "I mean, if he can get a Tower Key to do that, what else do you think he can do?"

"We do what soldiers do best." Nathan responded, "We improvise."

"'Improvisation' is not a strategy!" Follower protested.

"You have a better idea?" Nathan retorted. Follower was silent for a few seconds, and then grumbled something inaudible before answering.

"Fine." he grunted, "But just you remember it was your idea to box us in with him. We were supposed to leave the doors unlocked."

"And leave us open to getting suppressed by reinforcements?" Nathan shot back, "Not a chance. Where there's one Grineer there's always two hundred more. We don't have time to exterminate every upright corpse on this ship."

"Well, at least we managed to get him away from Atton." Kasumi interjected.

"Not that it matters." Follower stated, "Even if he does break out of cryo-freeze in the middle of the fight, he's not going to be much help. And that's assuming he remembers anything. After all, we didn't." The other Tenno pondered that fact for a moment. Atton had been one of the founders of Clan Alecto, and was a masterful warrior, but every Tenno so far awakened had suffered from partial or total amnesia to a one, with no exceptions. Only those with totems to call upon like Nathan had managed to recall anything past their combat skills and training. The thought that such a great warrior should be reduced to such a state…it was a horrible idea.

"_Ishnoa'raas, ha'ak nafaj! Ha'ak va'o shanak, Tenno!_" Vor taunted from his high spot, scanning the room for the quartet of Void-forged warriors. Nathan had ducked into cover behind the railings of the high platform where Atton's cryopod lay, holstering his Gremlins and shouldering his Goblin.

"I'm guessing he'll be immune to our heavier powers." Zaeed declared after a moment's silent contemplation of the situation, "Maybe if we wear him down with simpler techniques…"

"Like what?" Follower asked, irritated that he couldn't just use his Rhino Stomp technique to freeze Vor in a shockwave of temporal disruption so he could cut him apart with his Orthos.

"Keep him distracted and off guard. Nate, your Radial Blind would be a real help." Zaeed began.

"COME OUT, COWARDS!" screamed Vor. His wrinkled face was now red with rage from failing to get a reaction through his insults and taunts. He holstered his red and gold handgun and reached down to a pouch on his belt from which he produced several small silver spheres.

"Oh boy, those can't be good." Kasumi said.

"COME OUT AND DIE!" Vor raged, then began to hurl the silver orbs randomly in every direction. Wherever they landed, they stuck, extruding metal spikes as they impacted to fix themselves to whatever surface they hit. One landed by Follower, who was taking shelter behind one of the shuttles closest to side of the room without an exit, across from Nathan and the cryopod. He triggered his Warframe's Iron Skin ability instinctively, and not a moment too soon, because seconds later an arc of golden energy erupted off the sphere and earthed itself on him.

"Agh!" he cried, "What the fuck is this?" He hurriedly backpedaled, putting as much distance between himself and the orb as he could, moving a full ten meters away before the arc dissipated.

"There you are!" Vor laughed, and then lunged in Follower's direction, tipped off to his position by the burst of energy. In a burst of smoke and purple energy, he vanished, only to reappear two meters from Follower. Having exhausted his handful of bizarre grenades, he pulled his pistol out again and fired with inhuman accuracy, twice. Both shots hit Follower square in the helmet, and while his Iron Skin kept him safe from any real harm, he was momentarily stunned.

It was in that moment that Vor charged, Cronus raised to cut down his enemy. Before he could attack though, blue bolts of energy suddenly erupted from behind him as Kasumi stepped out from hiding and unleashed a flurry of Psychic Bolts. The projectiles, composed of raw mental energy, should've punched through Vor's relatively basic armor, but instead earthed themselves along his frame, evaporating with little blue flashes as his formerly hidden personal shield came into play. Vor was not unaffected though, and stumbled in his approach, arresting his forward momentum to turn and fire at Kasumi.

"_HA'VAK NA SHA'AN SU, TENNO KITCHE!_" he spat in Grintok, his voice slurred with anger.

Before he could regain his wits and retaliate, a Prova shock rod buried itself in his back, sending his body into spasms. Zaeed had taken advantage of the evolving tussle to sneak between the parked spacecraft to where Vor was attacking his comrades and had then laid in wait until an opportunity presented itself to intervene with maximum effect.

"Take that you ugly sonuvabitch!" Zaeed crowed into his helmet mike as he gave the handle of the Corpus device a twist, causing Vor to twitch horribly as he amped up the charge, sending dozens of kilovolts through the walking corpse, disrupting his cybernetics...at least until the Captain, ignoring the pain and through sheer force of will, overrode his mechanical limbs and grabbed ahold of his Orokin key, causing an opaque golden shield to surround him. This prompted Zaeed to utter a curse and pull his Prova away, rather than suffer the possibility of the new barrier slicing his weapon in two.

Quickly, he and his compatriots backpedaled as Vor knelt inside the sphere, allowing the energies of the ancient Orokin device to recharge his own defensive barriers while the secondary line of protection discouraged further attack. Follower, who had not only recovered from his momentary disorientation, but had had the chance to switch weapons, sprayed an entire magazine from his Soma rifle, hoping to penetrate the apparently impenetrable orb, only for all four Tenno to watch in shock as the shield quite literally absorbed the shots like they were nothing but rocks being flung into water, the bullets dissolving into golden ripples on impact.

"You Tenno, so confident of your monopoly on the secrets of the Orokin...how does it feel to be stuck with the short end of the stick for once?" Vor taunted, his voice muffled by the Orokin-enhanced shield, before raising his arms and thundering: "Grineer brothers, come and entertain our guests!"

Instantly, dozens of puffs of smoke laced with purple energy appeared all across the floor of the chamber, bringing a mess of Lancers, Troopers, Scorches and two Heavy Gunners to the fray. Contrary to initial expectations, which said that these troops must've been plucked from elsewhere on the ship and had been brought here without the slightest idea of what was going on, the new forces did not turn back and forth, baffled by the sudden change of scenery. Instead they locked onto the Tenno and cut loose with everything they had, prompting three of the four to fall back, lest they be cut down. Once in cover Zaeed peeked out to examine the new foes. Unlike their brethren, these Grineer were clad in armor that looked battered and beaten, as if forged by hand rather than industrial machines, yet for all that it still looked remarkably strong. Furthermore, their weapons, despite appearing no different from the standard Grineer fare the Tenno had seen a hundred times before, were exponentially more powerful. Even just a glancing hit took off a significant amount off Nathan's shield when he tried to take one on.

"I thought you locked the doors to stop this happening!" Follower complained to Nathan. He was the only one that did not immediately fall back thanks to his Iron Skin, but soon joined the rest of his squad as the reinforcements began to focus solely on him as the only visible target, peeling away the extra protection in seconds.

"I did!" the Excalibur-clad warrior protested, "But that was before I knew he could whip up his own private army with a wave of his hands!"

"They're not Grineer." Zaeed stated, using his helmet's visual enhancement systems to get an even closer look at the new soldiers, "They're Void Specters, like the defense systems in the Dojo. You know, physical manifestations of-"

"Yes, yes, we know! Do you have any suggestions?" Follower asked sarcastically. He was in a bad mood from being caught off-guard by Vor's initial offensive, and this new assault was not helping things.

"I say we just pump them full of bullets and wait for the little twat to come out from his piss-soaked coward's corner." Zaeed snarled. He didn't like being interrupted, but was wise enough not to focus his rage on his friend in the middle of a fight.

"While I'm all for that kind of solution, they have a hell of an appetite for lead, and we don't have bottomless ammo and energy reserves." Follower said, as he gunned down a trio of Grineer Troopers who were trying to force him back out of his present cover and into the firing line of the two Heavy Gunners, "Either someone thinks of something soon, or I'm just going to use my usual method." He didn't need to explain his 'usual method', as it could generally be encompassed by the simple approach of mowing everyone not in reach down while his Iron Skin soaked up the damage before discarding his guns and beating those closer at hand to death with his armored fists. However, this relied on his having a full charge on his Warframe's energy reserves to keep his Void-augmented defenses up, and despite his automatic habit of kneeling down to rip the power nodes out of the fallen Grineer like his allies to replenish his cells, he doubted he'd be able to collect enough to sustain the technique for as long as it might be needed, which was looking to be longer than even he expected. Every time he cut down three Grineer, five popped up to replace them. That was the trouble with Void Specters. They were physical extensions of a person's mind, given form through technology that accessed the Void. If you dealt enough damage to one, you could force it to dissipate, but so long as the user maintained the mental fortitude to do so, they could simply rustle up more. Sustaining the projections took skill though, and generally there was an upper limit to how many a person could make and how fast they could replace them. If you killed enough of them fast enough, you could take advantage of their master's distraction and kill him.

Nathan knew this, having dealt with such techno-sorcery long ago back before the Fall, which is why he suddenly suggested: "Hey, actually, let's try an oldie but goldie!"

He turned to face Follower, slicing a Lancer in half with his Nikana as he did so.

"Folls, how far is your projection range right now?" he asked, quickly using the blade to defend himself against a volley of bullets, his super-human reflexes allowing him to turn aside the projectiles or cut them apart mid-flight.

"Forty meters!" the Rhino-clad warrior declared as he perforated another trio of Lancers, before ducking back behind cover as the nearest Heavy Gunner began to wear on his defenses with her Gorgon machine gun. Nathan scanned the room, trying to do simple geometry in his head while impaling a Scorch that was shouldering his Ignis with a dozen Gremlin rounds. Finally he nodded to himself.

"Should be enough!" he declared, "Give us some thunder!" Follower immediately recognized the code phrase, and raised his left foot charging it with most of his energy reserves. Then with the sound of a thunderclap and a flash of electric blue light, a shockwave burst off him as he brought the same foot down, the impact resonating not just through space, but time as well, augmented by his Warframe's energies and his own connection of the Void, a connection all Tenno shared. Every Grineer within forty meters of him simply levitated twenty feet into the air, and then froze, as motionless as statues. Their new position placed them well above the roofs of the twelve heavy transports docked around the chamber's floor, and Nathan took advantage of this, leaping on top of the nearest one. Then he drew his Dragon Nikana.

"And...snick!" he chuckled as he grasped the weapon by its handle, turned it, then drove it into the floor. Void energy spilled off him in a flash of indigo, causing thirty five-foot long bladed spikes materialize around him, before hurtling outwards to impale every single one of the trapped Grineer, tearing them out of stasis and nailing them to the nearest surfaces in a variety of painful positions.

"His goons are down! Move in!" Follower shouted, slotting his Soma on his back and drawing his Orthos, Kasumi and Zaeed right beside him, all of them charging forward to try and break Vor's defenses with a melee assault, now that his imaginary soldiers had been defeated.

"Keep hitting him! There's no way he can keep that up forever!" the Rhino-clad Tenno shouted over the helmet-network, leaping into the air, then slamming one of the Orthos' blades against the sphere as he came down, only to bounce off violently. Zaeed sprayed the sphere with his Dera but the orb just ate the weapon's plasma bolts up like candy, seeming to grow stronger with every shot. Kasumi however, noticed something none of the others did.

With every strike outside of Zaeed's, Vor's face tightened in concentration. It was as though it was his mind that kept the shield intact, just as it did the Void Specters, and only his raw stubborn will kept Follower from splitting him like a Kubrow roast. Realizing this, Kasumi reached out with her mind, hoping Vor didn't have much more mental fortification than the average Grineer. Her hopes were rewarded with mixed results. Vor's mind was a well-stocked castle, resistant to siege, unlike the adobe huts the minds of most Lancers resembled. Yet despite this, his battlements were metaphorically unmanned, all his willpower having been directed to powering his physical defenses. With a cold smile, she began to burn his brain from the inside out, burrowing through his static defenses like a drop of acid and punching her way into his inner sanctum. The Grineer Captain screamed in pain, seizing his temples as he fell to his knees. Moments later, she felt herself being shoved out of his mental space as he redirected his focus to try and expunge her, but the damage was done. With a flicker, the golden barrier collapsed, leaving its user vulnerable.

"Tenno whore!" he yelled before blindly hurling another of his strange grenades. The silver sphere sailed through the air with uncanny grace and stuck to Kasumi's side, immediately erupting in a storm of golden arcs while its thrower teleported clear of the fray. The edge of Follower's Orthos, which had been descending to behead the Captain, met only a cloud of grey smoke where there should have been aged flesh and metal, missing its intended target by mere microseconds. Kasumi screamed in pain as the energy ripped through her, charring her Warframe at the site of the grenade's impact.

"Kassie!" In a flash, Nathan was by his lover's side, his Nikana elegantly swiping within an inch of her body to bisect the device. Free of the energy which had been coursing through her, the Nyx-clad warrior collapsed on her back, down but not out. Quickly she pushed herself backwards on the palms of her right hand, using the left to hold a Bolto pistol which she fired in Vor's direction as she made for cover.

"Fuck!" she gasped over the private helmet network, "That really, REALLY hurt!"

"Just stay down for a while!" Nathan recommended, "We'll keep him on the ropes. He can't keep this up forever, cybernetics or not!"

Indeed that seemed to be the case, for as Vor continued to teleport from one location to the next, trying to avoid Zaeed's fire and Follower's swings, the space of time between each jump grew longer and longer. As for the sphere, it appeared Kasumi's mental attack had done its work well, because his second attempt at conjuring it only resulted in a flickering dome that lasted a mere few seconds before collapsing under a vicious strike from Follower's Orthos. He stumbled backwards, but instead of trying to summon fresh Specters, he scrambled away, proving that his will was truly on the ropes.

"Keep up the pressure! Bastard's starting to slow down!" Follower yelled. Vor howled with rage as the Tenno pressed him back, towards the starboard side of the chamber where the deep pit that led to the troop-mustering bay below.

"_Vash'ner, ha'ak ans kree'da!_" he shrieked in Grintok. He tried to parry a strike from Nathan's Dragon Nikana, but his Cronus was casually batted aside, an act that was followed by a vicious kick to the gut, shattering two of his remaining natural ribs. He coughed blood, so deeply red it was almost black, before trying to counter the follow-up by Follower, whose Orthos opened a deep gash in his left thigh's armor, exposing the flesh beneath. He teleported again and tried to summon fresh soldiers, but the only result was a mass of distorted images like holograms in fog that vanished as blood began to leak from Vor's nostrils.

"Alright, enough fucking around." Follower growled. He turned to Vor as he appeared again in a fresh cloud of grey smoke and let out a Roar, a battle-cry augmented by raw Void energy which bolstered the weapons and power of his fellow Tenno and himself. Then he followed up with a Rhino Charge, accelerating forward at immense speed while increasing his mass-signature and inertia so that his impact against the Captain was like that of a bullet train. Vor was propelled off his feet and through the air, crashing to the ground with a totally shattered ribcage at the edge of the pit. From somewhere deep below, the sound of machinery indicated one of the three transport lifts had just engaged.

"Shit!" Kasumi swore, "Didn't you lock the troop bay!"

"No!" Nathan said after a pause loaded with unspoken embarrassment.

Vor gave his foes a bloody grin, shoving himself to his feet by dint of sheer stubbornness rather than any concerted act of willpower. He was badly beaten, but he still had his pride, and he was not one to pass up a chance to spit his defiance in the face of his enemies.

"Tenno worms." he coughed, "What do you think you are achieving? The Orokin are gone. You are anachronisms, without meaning or purpose in a galaxy that has left you behind. Even if you save your brethren here and now, your days are numbered."

He stumbled forward, his Cronus wavering as he tried to as he tried to assume a guard position to deflect the next attack, which came from Follower, who was impatient to be done with this fight. He lunged and swung his Orthos, but Vor parried and countered with a downward swipe in an attempt to bisect him. He failed to harm the Warframe itself, but when Follower brought up his own weapon to counter-parry him, Vor's blade flashed white as energy arced off his Void Key and he cleaved the polearm in two, shocking all the Tenno present. A nasty smirk soon stretched across Vor's face.

"Did you really believe that with all the artifacts I have recovered, I would not use them to their fullest?" Raising his blade so that it pointed at his enemies, he focused his remaining energy into it, making it shine again. His Void Key glowed and the various wounds inflicted on him began to heal. At the sight of this, frustration boiled up in all the Tenno. They had expected a quick fight, not this ridiculously drawn-out battle.

"Come Tenno, your Warframes will make excellent trophies..." he cackled. Before he could do anything else, a white cloud washed over him, obscuring him from view. The four Tenno tensed, readying themselves for whatever might come, only to see when the dust settled, their quarry locked in ice. The look frozen on Vor's face was one of surprise and shock, a look that his would-be assassins soon shared as Haigen and his squad stepped out from behind the Grineer Captain, disembarking from the elevator that they had thought was bringing fresh foes to the fray. After getting over the shock of their leader's appearance, closer examination of the platform revealed to the four that their assumption had not been entirely unfounded. As the Warlord and the three other Tenno accompanying him stepped forward, they left behind smears on the deck from walking in the pools left by the still-melting bodies of what had presumably once been a heavy squad of Grineer soldiers. The sanitation implants of the clone warriors had reduced their forms to mush, a thin layer of which now covered the elevator platform.

Haigen gazed at each of his four chosen coolly. It was plain to them despite not being able to see his face, that he was neither pleased nor amused.

"You four disappoint me. I assumed that this decrepit piece of filth would already be dead by now. Instead I find that he has you pressed against the walls." He strode towards the frozen Captain, the ice starting to crackle in response to stresses created by its sudden formation. He unlimbered his golden scythe as he approached, holding it lazily in his right hand as he came to a halt between the Tenno and Vor, his squad surrounding the Grineer officer while he faced his other subordinates.

"Would you care to explain why he is still standing?" he asked calmly. A cold sweat began to spread among the four present.

"With respect, sir, he's equipped himself with a large amount of modified Orokin technology. He's considerably stronger than we were led to believe, given our limited information on him." Nathan reported. Haigen let out a 'hmph' of disappointment.

"A fair point." he conceded, and then added: "For a novice. You are of the Clan Council, the most Elite of our warriors. As such you are skilled, experienced and armed with weapons many only ever dream of using…and yet, you have thus far failed to carry out your mission."

Beneath his helmet, Nathan turned red with irritation and shame. Everything Haigen was saying was true…yet they had let their anger and collective surprise at Vor's prowess with his plundered Orokin techno-sorcery keep them off guard. They had fought worse and prevailed, enemies whose power made Vor look like an insect...or so their cloudy memories from before the Long Night told them. Yet here they were, outwitted by an upright ambulatory tumor. It was both embarrassing and infuriating.

"Sir, forgive my insubordination, but you were not here. We threw everything we had at him, and still he did not fall. Our weapons could not penetrate his shield. He also displayed powers we-" the Excalibur-clad warrior tried to explain, before Haigen held up a hand.

"Enough." he said flatly, causing Nathan's jaw to click shut, "You will have ample time to explain yourself at length when we return." He turned to face the Grineer Captain.

"For now though," he said, raising his scythe into a ready stance, "let us finish what we came here to do." Then he lunged. Vor's eyes, still trapped under ice, moved not an inch as the gleaming edge of the Reaper Prime flashed through the air.

There was a sound like a pole being driven into the surface of a frozen lake. Then Captain Vor, terror of Mercury and enslaver of millions fell dead, his rock-solid body clunking as it split in half at the waist upon impact with the floor. A trickle of black ooze ran from the point of separation on both sides.

"Justice is served." Haigen growled, twirling his weapon a few times to get any remaining ichor off it before sheathing it on his back. Then he turned to his three squad mates.

"Go and retrieve our brother, then carry him to the extraction point." he commanded. Without waiting for an answer, he turned to the other four Tenno.

"As for you, scavenge his body. It is high past time we left this place." Then he turned again and left them, heading for the cryopod which still lay on the upper level at the rear of the chamber, following his own squad. As he departed, the quartet of warriors slowly gathered together around the deceased Grineer Captain looking at each other with what might've been sheepish expressions beneath their helmets.

"Well…" Follower said, looking down at the two halves of flash-frozen Grineer Officer, "at least we're not dead." He still held the two halves of his Orthos in his hands, not willing to throw away a weapon that had served him so well, before slotting the pieces on his back in a haphazard fashion. Zaeed ambled over to stand by him.

"In fact," he continued, trying desperately to break the awkward silence in a way that wasn't awkward, "you could call this a refresher course…"

"Shaddap." Zaeed grumbled.

Nathan and Kasumi joined them, the latter being half-carried by the former.

"So...he's dead then?" Nathan asked, warily eyeing the bisected frozen corpse, half tempted to stab the head with his Dragon Nikana. He settled for kicking it nonchalantly with one foot, not enough to shatter it, but enough to make a resounding 'THUMP'.

Zaeed nodded. "Yeah, he's really dead. What about you Kasumi, you going to be okay? Saw he got a nasty hit in on you." She just nodded, not entirely sure if she would be able to speak coherently. She pointed towards to Vor's body.

"What? We already said he's dead." She shook her head no, pointing again, this time at the blade still clutched in his hand. Follower looked at the corpse, then her, then back at the corpse.

"Oh, you want dibs on the sword?" She nodded, Nathan tightening his hold as he helped her walk over.

Follower was the first one to approach the body, going straight for the Void Key fused to the captain's chest. Planting a foot on Vor's face for some leverage, he grabbed ahold of the key and pulled. With a rough 'CRUNCH', the key was ripped free of its housing and the ice that engulfed it. He held it up to look at it in what little light there was, all of it provided by flickering fusion bulbs. When he looked at it closely, the key seemed to lose its luster, almost as though it was ashamed to have been used by such scum. It was rumored that the Void Keys of the Orokin were rumored to be sentient, almost sapient; a side effect of the bizarre energies they channeled. He was half-tempted to try and crush it right then and there, his anger at such a relic being used like it was...perhaps it was better that it be destroyed than continue in its desecrated state. His hand trembled as he considered it.

Finally, the trembling stopped. His decision made, Follower focused all his strength into his hand, forcing his fingers to close tighter. The golden alloy of the key did not even creak in protest under the force, the inlaid crystals shattered into dust and fragments, the raw Void energy within leaking out. The key seemed to regain its luster as the forces increased, growing brighter and brighter until finally, it crumpled, reduced to just another dead piece of Orokin technology. A final sliver of energy escaped from the key, which was quickly losing its gold luster and turning the color of tarnished silver. The wisp of light lingered for a moment, before it wrapped around Follower's arm and flashed once, as though it was saying 'thank you', finally fading into nothingness.

"You know, we could've used that…" Nathan said reproachfully, "You of all people should know how hard it is to get into the Void Towers."

"It was a kindness." Follower snapped, rising to his feet, the broken key still in hand, and walked away. Nathan just shrugged and retrieved the Captain's pistol. He ran his hand over it, examining what could only be described as an almost seamless blend of Grineer and Orokin technology.

"An impressive piece of machinery for something built by savages." he commented, turning the weapon over and over, "The science behind this could prove useful someday." Already he was thinking how, once they unraveled the means by which Vor had accomplished this feat of hybridized engineering, they could do this to their own weapons and possibly create their own hybrids, or perhaps even their own Primes. At the very least, it would give them a place to start in better understanding Orokin technology.

Zaeed flipped the bottom half of the body over, intent on claiming the grenades that were so much like his own. "Come to papa." He pried open the frozen pouches around the severed waist of the Grineer officer and gathered as many as he could.

"Thanks meat-sack, been looking for an upgrade." he snickered, admiring his loot.

Nathan drew his Nikana before cutting off Vor's hand, which was still holding the Cronus he had been using in a frostbitten death-grip. Picking it up, he pried at the fingers until they relinquished their grip and released the sword to his care. Then he dropped the frozen limb carelessly, allowing it to crack on impact, splitting into three pieces. He held onto the blade though, magnetically attaching it to his back. If Kasumi wanted it later, she could just ask him for it. Picking her up again, he turned to his companions.

"Let's get out of here."

_The Grineer are enthralled by the idea of ruling the galaxy with an iron fist. What they do not realize is that such a method is doomed to fail. The need for freedom is very much like the desire for wealth. People will always want more, and the harder the Grineer oppress their subjects, the stronger that need becomes. The return of the Tenno was merely a catalyst which is accelerating a fission reaction that has been centuries in the making. One day soon, the Twin Queens will squeeze a little too hard. I only hope that we are strong enough to survive the blast._

-from the personal diaries of Frohd Bek, C.E.O. of the Honorable Board of Directors, 645 P.C.-

A/N: Probably not wonderful material, but hey, at least I'm still writing, which is difficult right now. Lots of college stuff taking up my life, not to mention cranky parents. Anyway, lots of rewriting to do here. We'll probably follow things up to the Gravidus Dilemma at which point the previously mentioned big synchronization of the two current lines of action will occur. Gravidus will have a resonating effect for our Tenno, and will help set up how they interact with our ME friends. Also, expect the appearance of more material that isn't officially in the game. Nothing severely out of key, but it'll spice things up. As for whoever said that the 'aliens' mentioned in Warframe are humans ruled by the Corpus or Grineer, I don't think that's the case. If it were, the Lotus wouldn't have used the word 'races' when referring to them. And for those who have read the previous version of this story, Dr Murkhoff will be getting a makeover to make him a better villain. He will remain pure evil, but a more cultured and well-written evil.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

_To this day, most Tenno continue to suffer from partial amnesia for reasons unknown. While many have regained some measure of their past through the use of mnemonic totems such as past possessions or locations with strong personal significance, none have ever fully recovered from this strange affliction. However, despite considerable proof supporting this sad fact, rumor persists of a small group of Tenno clad in Prime Warframes who have fully retained their experiences from before the Long Night. Who they are and where they may reside remains unknown, if indeed they exist at all. If they do though, it begs the question: 'Why do they not share their knowledge? What is it they seek to hide?'…_

-from "Gun and Blade", by Grace Koan, Principle Attendant of the Lotus' Mainframe, 672 P.C.-

**Location: Local Cluster, Origin System, Solar Periphery, Clan Alecto Dojo, Isolation Room 24B**

**Date: September 24, 643 P.C.**

Atton woke to bright lights and an empty room. Confusion flooded his addled brain. As cognition returned slowly but surely, he tried to figure things out. He was in a cryopod; that much was clear. He could feel the memory-gel bed under him and see the unfolded panels around him like a flower when he rolled his head from side to side. How long had he been asleep? Moreover, where was he? The light was bright, but not blinding, a silver-white glow that seemed to suffuse everything. He pushed himself up on arms that ached and shuddered in protest as they were shaken from a comfortable slumber. Slowly, patiently, he rose, giving himself time to acclimate as his body came awake.

When he had managed to achieve verticality, he allowed himself a grin under his helmet. The alabaster and golden skin of his Excalibur Prime Warframe gleamed in the light that surrounded him. He'd need to run through some exercises to ensure that he hadn't deteriorated during his sleep. For now though, he was happy to be standing so soon after waking. Emerging from a state of cryosleep, particularly a deep one, was never easy.

He examined his surroundings. The chamber reminded him of a Tenno Dojo, but the aesthetics seemed more minimalistic than the style that had been prevalent when he had gone to sleep. Silver and white were much in evidence, with various shades of gray. He looked more closely. The chamber also had the look of an isolation chamber, used to house the sick and injured who required observation.

"Lotus?" he said, trying his voice, which seemed croaky and as tired as his muscles felt. It was standard to call upon the Lotus upon awakening from cryosleep. She was the best method of getting up to speed.

Instead of the calm and usually soothing voice of the Lotus, he heard a set of doors open. Turning around, he saw a fellow Prime-wearer, this one a Frost, enter the chamber. Flanking him were two squads of Tenno, a motley mixture of frames but it was plain to see how they carried themselves. They were veterans, and each of them were either carrying some sort of strange drum fed, dual barreled weapon or a Bo staff. Right now they were relaxed, the staffs held lightly at their sides and the barrels of their guns pointed down at the ground, but Atton knew that even the freshest of Tenno Initiates could react with lightning speed if the situation demanded it.

As the group approached him, he eyed their weapons. A Bo staff was a poor choice in the somewhat small room, which left little space to wield the long staves properly. As for the shotguns...he had never seen their like. That threw him off a little. He was versed in every weapon under the stars, but he had never seen such guns. He decided to try and avoid being in their path should a fight become necessary.

He shook himself. Why was he thinking about fighting. These were Tenno, his brothers and sisters...or so it seemed. The wearer of the Frost Prime reached up to his hidden neck seal for his helmet. There was a click and a hiss and the cage-like contraption soon came free, disconnecting from the almost seamless suit with barely a sound, then folding up in the hands of its user until it was roughly a quarter of its original size and no longer resembled a helmet. Atton examined the features now revealed to him. They were familiar...very familiar.

"Haigen?" he asked tentatively. The Frost Prime stopped directly before him, just over a meter between them.

"That is you right?" he asked, "Otherwise my memory is more shot than when we decided to see who had the stronger fortitude between us." The man, smiled, the expression creasing his weather-worn face.

"That was hardly a fair contest. I'd never even tried Red Sands Sake before you suddenly decided to try and drink me under the table!" he retorted, making a dismissive gesture to the Tenno behind him. The two squads saluted before stepping back and filing out of the room, the door closing behind them. Atton chuckled and stepped forward, stretching out his arm to take Haigen's in firm grip at the elbow. The Clan Warlord did the same, and mentor and former student shook once in respect. Then Atton's face, dominated by his sandy blonde hair and grey eyes, turned grim.

"How long have I been away?" he asked seriously. Haigen's smile fell away and his lips pursed as though he was going to bite his tongue rather than say. After a moment he sighed.

"Too long." he muttered. Atton frowned at the way his old friend had spoken. Haigen was usually unfazed by almost anything that happened as unflinching as a wall of ice. In all their time together, Atton had never heard his friend sound as defeated as he did now.

"Haigen...the Empire…" he asked hesitantly. Dark memories surged to the forefront of his mind, but in a jumble. He wasn't sure what they meant, but the sight of tens of thousands of bodies piled high to the heavens with Jupiter filling the sky overhead couldn't mean anything good.

"The Empire…" Haigen said, his voice breaking, "Is dead...six-hundred years dead." Atton's face grew hard. He didn't question if it was true. The words stirred memories that could not be false. He tried to sort them into order, but order failed to find him. He settled for staring his old student in the eye.

"How?" he ground out. Haigen couldn't look his old master in the eye. He turned his vision down rather than face those grey chips of flint which he had faced time and again during his training, feeling the weight of a failure that was as vast as an ocean. The Tenno were meant to protect the Empire...and they had failed.

"No, nobody knows. No one remembers anything. Every one of us that awakes has only a few scant memories of our lives outside the order and of what came before." he said, keeping his voice low.

"And...you were hoping that I remembered, I presume?"

"Yes, to a degree." Haigen, with monumental effort, raised his eyes to meet Atton's this time.

"If anyone does remember something, its usually one of us." he said. He didn't need to explain to Atton that by 'us' he meant those blessed to be wearing a Prime. There was more to wearing such an immortal instrument than gold trim and increased power.

"Do you recall anything, anything that might be of help? Is there a totem, some object that might assist you in regaining what you have lost?" Haigen asked, trying not to sound over-eager.

"I have lost nothing...it's just in disorder. I cannot place the time of certain events. They seem as though they could've happened the day I was born or yesterday at the same time." Atton said, releasing his grip on his friend and turning back to the pod. He pressed a hand to his forehead. In his mind, a storm of images roiled in a cauldron of temporal confusion. A face with dark hair and sapphire eyes…a lover? Or was it his mother? He could not attach words or names to the sights and sounds that once seemed so clear. He pressed his fingers deeper into his skull, rubbing in irritation, then began to pace.

"It's a fog, like disconnected short stories. Some information seems...misfiled. I can remember my training...and training you and every member of Alecto...but I cannot…" he growled, trailing off. He snarled and kicked the cryopod.

"It's all there. I know it is!" he hissed, "It just doesn't make any sense. Screams, fire, combat…it's just...noise!"

"Calm yourself, brother." Haigen assured him, "Perhaps some meditation…"

"Yes…" Atton agreed, "but not now. If the Empire has fallen then there are more pressing matters than finding out how." Haigen felt a twinge of despair. He had been hoping his old master might focus more on reclaiming his mind than finding another fight.

"There are, and I will allow the Lotus to explain everything, but between you and me, you may want to consider keeping this information to yourself for now. If your memories are in such a state, perhaps its best no one knows for now. " Haigen noticed the questioning look on his face, "Too many of us are eager for anything that happened that lead to our current state. And should your memories fail to provide any answers…"

"It might be crippling to everyone's morale." Atton finished, nodding. He didn't say anything about the new image filling his mind's eye; Swords and axes cleaving flesh and bone, the stench of blood and offal filling his nose, and above it all a warrior in heavy, dark armor, a tattered cloak flying from his shoulders.

"So, what was with the squads from before? I thought I recognized some of them." he asked, trying to force the gruesome images out of his thoughts.

Haigen grimaced.

"I...was hoping you wouldn't ask that. Some of our brothers and sisters, when we woke them, they were rather...violent."

"Violent?"

Haigen nodded.

"Indeed, we've had a few accidents where those we awakened reacted...rashly, attacking anything and everything in range. There have been no deaths as of yet, but there were more than a few serious injuries before they finally realized what they were doing or we manage to talk them down. It's standard protocol now; less than lethal munitions and weapons, a minimum of two squads, and a maximum of four for any heavy units."

"I see…" Atton said. There was an awkward pause in which both Warlord and mentor tried to think of something else to speak of.

"Well…I haven't eaten in six-hundred years…I may as well see what the food is like." Atton suggested, letting out a half-hearted chuckle. They both knew it was just false laughter, trying to cover the future-shock and horror that he was experiencing, but Haigen refrained from commenting. His old master was a wise man, and stronger that he looked. He would deal with things in his own way. Still…

"If ever you need to talk about things…we are all here for you." he said. Atton did not respond at first. He looked over his old student as if trying to think of a means of stating that he was fine which wouldn't come out as totally unbelievable. Then he seemed to give up and placed a hand on Haigen's shoulder.

"I know." he answered, "Thank you."

**Location: Serpent Nebula, Widow System, The Citadel, Presidium, Top Secret Council Meeting Room**

"The Corpus are winning." Sparatus spat. This was a difficult feat, since Turian mandibles were not conducive to the act of spitting, but it was clear to anyone nearby that he was furious over the situation. Tevos, for her part, had her hands over her face, trying to conceal the feelings of abject terror she was experiencing on the inside with an air of tired concern on the outside. As for Ikkitha, the Salarian representative…she remained a blank slate still in control even in this direst of situations. You didn't get far in Salarian society as a Dalatrass without learning to get a handle on your emotions very quickly.

"How could they not?" asked Ikkitha, with a tone of rhetorical reasoning that made Sparatus want to lunge across the table and strangle her, "They have exotic technology that is superior to ours on many levels. Their armed forces are well-equipped and prodigiously loyal and numerous. And they have our star charts." This last statement made Sparatus hiss violently, and for a moment Tevos thought he might actually explode or, more likely, take a swing at his Salarian colleague. Her horror only increased when Ikkitha, in a tone that seemed contrived specifically to elicit this response, added: "Perhaps the Hierarchy should have informed its friends that contact with a new species had been made before trying to make friends with them."

Tevos had dealt with many Turian Councilors in her line of work, and as such, believed she had a pretty good idea of how their minds worked. Because of this, she was sure that the only thing that could follow Ikkitha's statement was an outbreak of violence that would very quickly become an unaffordable scandal should either be injured in the process. It was also because of this expectation that she was astonished when Sparatus deflated and sank back into his seat. She wasn't sure whether he had been cowed by the accusation or was simply in better control of his rage than she had thought him capable of. Still, it was no less a shock, and served as an excellent reminder that the truth could have unpredictable results.

Personally, Tevos felt Ikkitha's statement was somewhat unfair. The Turians at Velora, the latest and last colony the Turian Hierarchy had seen fit to establish two years ago before the war had begun, had probably acted out of an honest sense of goodwill when it came to giving the apparently nice new aliens a copy of the Galactic Codex. It was just a shame that their leaders had probably ordered it because they wanted to make these new beings into another client species like the Volus.

It had come as a considerable surprise to all when the Corpus, a levo-based mammalian species with physical features disturbingly similar to Asari had come out of nowhere two years previously. Their ships had simply showed up over Velora to the dismay and fright of its inhabitants, emotions which had changed to amicable joy and friendliness when they had initially declared that they wanted to discuss trade relations. Naturally they had been warned that it was illegal to open Relays without authorization from the Council before the goodwill gift mentioned by Ikkitha had been turned over.

Shortly after receiving the peace offering, the Corpus had attacked. It had been an unprovoked act of violence, every shred of evidence pointed to that. The reason why was still a mystery, as no Corpus had ever allowed themselves to be taken alive. Those that had been encountered so far had displayed a fanatical devotion to their alien cause, in some cases quite literally to a point beyond the boundaries of sanity. Much of their technology was wired to self-destruct when captured, and though their language was simple enough to decipher, their communication codes had proven to bafflingly complex that they left even Quarians scratching their heads in befuddlement.

After that initial conflict, the war had quickly spread. Of course the Council was not as unprepared as it had been for invaders, back before the Rachni War, but even so, the first wave had proven devastating. In the space of six months they had lost over a dozen planets to the advance of the Corpus and their robotic legions. The superiority of Corpus space forces had also meant the Treaty of Fairixen had had to be disbanded utterly if they were going to stand a fighting chance. Eight months in they had consolidated their forces and drawn a line in the sand. For a while it had worked…until the Corpus started appearing like magic on the other side of the line.

Even the Salarians hadn't been able to work that one out fully. After the first wave had been forced to slow to a grind by the Citadel forces slamming everything they could into forming a cohesive barrier against the invaders, reports of Corpus forces being sighted in regions they could not possibly have access to had begun to crop up. The Council had ignored them at first, an act which had cost them dearly when a small task force had breached the perimeter around the Citadel, entering on an eccentric orbit to try and board the station by bypassing its defenses which were largely situated in the Widow system's plane of the ecliptic. The attackers had been driven off, but the _Destiny Ascension_ had been badly damaged and the Citadel itself had taken hits during the closing moments of the battle, causing the Upper Zakera Ward a considerable amount of injury. The grooves that had been cut by high-powered directed energy weapons and carbon scoring from explosions were still visible to an extent, even today.

Since then, the Citadel had truly been forced to start to living up to its name more fully. Brand new defense installations had been installed on both the outer hull and inner surface of the enormous installation, and a fleet six times the size of the old Citadel Mutual Defense Force was stationed permanently in-system, constantly patrolling all possible approach vectors.

At present, the best explanation the Salarians had come up with was that the Corpus had some sort of faster-than-light drive that did not rely on Mass Relays. Tevos had wanted to deny the idea as preposterous, but as Ikkitha had once stated, nothing was impossible, mere highly improbable, and the evidence seemed to build a strong argument for the lizard-men being right. Thankfully this alternate mode of transport didn't seem as widely used as Mass Relay travel, or in all likelihood they would've been swamped by an invasion fleet on their doorstep on day one, but the possibility that they even possessed such a thing totally changed the rules of the war. The fleets stationed at the Relays were not the impassable barriers they had been thought to be, and while they were doubtlessly holding back the enemy's main advance, the foe's ability to strike from within their midst meant they could cripple the Citadel's forces if they were caught unawares.

Tevos rubbed her temples. It had all been so much easier back when the universe had made sense. Now, thanks to this new race, the galaxy was being turned upside down and for the first time in millennia, the Citadel Council found itself on the defensive.

"Councilor Ikkitha," she asked quietly, "if you could possibly relay some good news right now I would be in your debt." For a moment she thought the Salarian was going to ask her to put that in writing, but apparently the abrasive little pyjak (which was how Tevos felt towards her right now) seemed to think better of it at the last second.

"Our scientists have made breakthroughs in reverse engineering the Corpus' Medi-Gel. It's already being deployed, but it may be a while before we see the effects, if any, on our casualty rates." she stated.

"What about weaponry?" Sparatus asked, his eyes full of hesitant hope.

"We've had some luck getting our hands on more intact weapons and salvage, and we're learning more and more everyday about how they manipulate plasma, but we're still a long ways away from replicating the technology. At the very least however, we should be able to apply some of the systems we've found in their more primitive mass accelerator weapons to our own very soon."

Sparatus ground his mandibles together in consternation. He was happy that progress was being made, but the Corpus' mastery of directed energy weapons like plasma and particle beams had been the bane of Council armies since the offset of the war. Their kinetic barriers did little to stop them, and so far the only real counter-measure they had come up with so far was to equip their ships with the densest and most heat-resistant armor credits could buy to try and help them shrug off the worst of the enemy weapons. This had been only partially successful, because the extra mass had resulted in many ships requiring constant fixes for the extra strain it placed on their eezo drives. It had also contributed to a decrease in maneuverability, which had been one of their key advantages over the comparatively sluggish and slow Corpus ships.

Tevos was less pleased by the news.

"You mean to say that we're just beginning to get a handle on technology that all evidence points to being obsolete by Corpus standards!? When we last met you said we had made, and I quote, 'great strides' in our understanding of their technology? What happened? Did your scientists find they forgot to carry a three? Or did they all catch something that gave them amnesia concerning everything they had done for the past several months?"

The comment was nasty, and did not precisely match her previous mood, but Tevos said it because she could tell from the Salarian's previous words that she was holding something back. Her tone must've caught the lizard-woman off guard, because her face briefly assumed the expression used by Salarians to communicate nervous distress, before wrenching itself back into the calm demeanor it had possessed moments before.

"There was an...incident at one of our labs. As you both can recall, we had managed to work out the key component in all Corpus energy weapons is a string of interconnected super-cooled power cells, collectively called a Fieldron according to what information we've managed to steal from the Corpus. We've recently determined that the cells contain super-compressed, super-heated plasma: an incredibly potent power source, capable of storing vast amounts of energy through controlled ionization."

"So what's the issue then? It seems as though your scientists have already figured everything out."

The Salarian councilor let out a mirthless laugh.

"One would think, but the incident I was talking about was how we determined the nature of what was inside. From what we can tell, someone had managed to crack open one of the containment units. A large section of the installation was flash-vaporized as the plasma rapidly expanded and melted its way through everything in its path until it had fully dispersed and begun to cool down. We took a reading of the heat levels at the edge to the epicenter. What we learned was...disturbing."

"Well, just what did your people find?"

"The temperature at ground zero was on the magnitude of several million degrees Mantell. That's roughly the level of heat found in the outer corona of your average yellow dwarf star. That's far and beyond our own capabilities. Given the right materials and infrastructure, we would be capable of producing the plasma itself, yes, but containment is far beyond our reach, let alone weaponization." she explained. Before her fellow Councilors could respond, she hurriedly pressed on.

"However, there may be some good news yet. One of our younger scientists has been tinkering with several Fieldron samples, something we are in no short supply of thankfully, and he thinks he may have found a way of reconstructing an intact unit. This means, if we can capture enough samples, we should be able to build a weapon around them, given enough time and study."

"Stealing parts from the enemy is hardly an effective strategy. Even if you somehow stumbled upon a stockpile, I doubt you'd be able to equip our troops fast enough to make a difference." Sparatus grumbled. Unwilling to let another argument arise, which looked likely to happen given the expressions both Ikkitha and her Turian compatriot were wearing, Tevos changed the subject.

"What about the robotics? Surely there's been some progress there?"

"Of course." Ikkitha said, her tone becoming a bit brighter, "For all their advanced technology, the Corpus don't seem too keen on effectively protecting their drones. According to battlefield reports, it seems that any basic high-charge electrical field is enough to cripple, if not outright shut down and destroy most of their robotic forces. Even a basic EMP is enough as they have not shelled out the extra resources to harden them against such an attack."

"Really?" Sparatus said, intrigued. It was a note worth making, and made him feel a bit more confident. From the beginning it had been clear to him that the Corpus were not true warriors. For all their advanced technology, their tactics had often been lacking in direct confrontations. This information only deepened his certainty that their foe was not what he appeared to be.

"Oh yes, by all rights they should know how to protect their robotics against such a simple technology, considering their own advanced state. Yet, for some reason, they chose not to. As though it were a more decision based on cost than anything else. Hardening any sort of technology against an EMP is simple enough but rather costly. It's why there is such a discrepancy between civilian grade and military grade equipment; the latter has a higher cost due to making it able to resist an EMP blast."

"What about their programming? According to what I've heard from the frontlines in the Silean Nebula, those...MOAs of theirs can be quite smart." Sparatus inquired.

"Their programming is actually quite primitive, hardly more adaptive than your standard military virtual intelligence. The trouble is the security systems they seem to possess, in addition to their firewalls. Those safeguards come with every model and seem...uncannily effective. In fact, the closest thing I can compare them to is those scraps of data we have recovered from the very few partially intact Geth platforms we've recovered over the years."

"You mean to say they've been working with-" Tevos began, the color draining from her face. Ikkitha waved a hand dismissively.

"No, no. The programming is distinctly different from Geth software. However, I suggest that what we may be looking at is a society that possesses rudimentary AIs, but does not trust them."

"That's…" Tevos began. She wasn't sure about how to feel about the idea. It said that the Corpus were playing a dangerous game, but at the same time weren't unaware of the risks.

"Regardless of whether or not this is the case, it means that mass intrusion into the battle-network the MOAs seem to share is all but impossible. I have a report from the front in the Annos Basin that when one tech specialist compromised a MOA, its compatriots immediately turned on it."

The other Councilors remained silent, a sign of just how unsettling the news was to them. The threat of the Geth and the possibility of an eventual invasion had been the biggest concern on their plates before the arrival of the Corpus. Now what Ikkitha was saying was that the Corpus were in possession of at least one artificial intelligence, or that they were a lot smarter than they were letting on.

"So in short, things aren't that different from the way they were last week?" Tevos said. Ikkitha nodded glumly. Outside of another means of wiping out the majority of Corpus ground forces, along with a potential means of reverse engineering Corpus technology, they were still at the proverbial square one.

"What about a biological answer?" Sparatus asked. Tevos recoiled in shock and disgust.

"Sparatus!" she hissed.

"It worked with the Krogan, and you must admit we are in a-" he began.

"We are not at that point, and so long as the line holds we will NEVER be at that point, not if I can help it!" she spat. The Turian held up his hands in an attempt to placate the enraged Asari, before Ikkitha added her two credits.

"It wouldn't work, most likely." she said.

"What?" Sparatus asked, "Why?"

"As you know, the bodies of the Corpus troops are fitted with sanitization implants that liquefy the body on death. Whatever is in those implants doesn't just destroy the flesh, it shreds most of the DNA." When her compatriots gave her strange looks as to how that was possible, she sighed. "Nanotechnology, or at least some form of it, in combination with some kind of molecular acid. It eviscerates organic matter at the cellular level, burning it as fuel, which is where the white aura effect comes from. It's similar to the self-destruct mechanism present in most of their technology. Even if we had the will, we wouldn't have enough solid samples to construct a virus. And of course, there would be the problem of the delivery method..."

Tevos sighed, then called up a hologram of the galaxy from the projector at the center of the table. She was glad that another Genophage or some equally horrible measure was off the table, but still...it would've been nice to know it could be done. Though she would never admit it, it would've made an effective bargaining tool.

"At present our forces are already pressed holding the line against the enemy advance. We cannot divert ships from there to patrol within our territory in response to the new threat of these Corpus raiding attacks, or we would be overwhelmed inside of a week." she stated.

"Our infrastructure is busy maintaining that line. There's not enough time or resources to build the kind of forces needed to patrol our own territory with the kind of thoroughness needed." Ikkitha stated.

"I realize that...which is why we'll have to pull back even farther." Tevos answered. Sparatus gave her a concerned look.

"From where? The border with the Terminus has to stay strong or the warlords out there will inevitably capitalize on our growing weakness." Sparatus pointed out, "And so far the Batarians have reported no incursions into their territory." He didn't need to add what this entailed. Everyone knew the Hegemony was skimping on its military contribution to the war effort. The real bulk of its forces were back in their home territory, busy ensuring their slaves didn't get any ideas. However, if the Council pulled back from their border, it might possibly encourage the Corpus to expand in that direction, prompting the Batarians, who well known for being spiteful bastards, to declare war on both the Corpus for invading and the Council for abandoning them.

"We need to strengthen our interior defenses, that much is clear. This station still carries the scars of our hubris. If we do not pull back, the Corpus may cripple our infrastructure and before we know it, the line we have established will fold like paper." Ikkitha stated.

"But where? Where are we going to get the ships, the soldiers?" Sparatus asked. Tevos looked at the galactic map. Much of it was familiar to her, but a large portion of the area directly between the Terminus Systems and Inner Council Space had been blank until two years ago. Now the cartographers were tentatively covering that zone of darkness with the words 'Corpus Space'. Of course it seemed unlikely that the Corpus ruled all that territory. If they had, they would've long ago rolled over the Council like a wave and moved on to the Terminus Systems without even stopping.

"Well at the very least the Corpus seem to be pulling back, if so ever slightly…or least slowing down." Sparatus added. "I've been reading reports from all over and apparently there have been less attempted incursions over the line as of late. Also, it's possible the Batarians may be getting involved where we can't see it. There've been sightings of other Corpus vessels towing derelicts back into their territory around the Hegemony's border. I had some tactical analysts go over images of the things, but it's pretty clear to anyone that those ships were already in some sort firefight."

Ikkitha and Tevos shared a brief look. They both knew that the Batarians were notorious for being quiet about happenings inside their borders, but they doubted that they'd be as quiet as Sparatus seemed to think about the Corpus turning an eye to them.

"Well, the Spectre contingent we sent into their territory should be reporting back soon." Tevos said, "Perhaps they will be able to tell us more. In the meantime though…" She expanded the map so it filled the table.

"A hard choice lies ahead of us." she continued, "We need to pull back somewhere. The only question is: where?" There was a long silence. When it became clear that neither of her fellow Councilors was likely to make a suggestion, Tevos selected a in the center of Inner Council Space. She had thought long and hard about the choice, and her selection, therefore was not random.

As the representation of the planetary system overruled the cloud of dust and stars, however, it became rapidly clear that Sparatus and Ikkitha did not approve.

"Tevos, you cannot be serious!" the Turian Councilor exploded.

"And why not? It's not as though it would be a great loss to us if it were taken. And our ships are little more than a formality there." She of course, was referring to the Krogan DMZ, a region on the very edge of the frontline between the Corpus and the Council, and bordering Terminus space. "If we pull our ships back from the DMZ, than we will only have to patrol two fronts instead of three, and its not as though our ships have any real purpose there."

"The Corpus are an unknown quantity. The Krogan are not." Ikkitha said.

"What does that mean?" Tevos asked suspiciously.

"It means that the Corpus have motives we do not know. At some point, we may be able to reason with them. If worst comes to worst, fight them to a standstill. If we abandon the Krogan DMZ, however, we will only be trading the threat of Corpus raiders for an increased amount of threat from the Krogan. It took nearly a century to pacify the region after the Genophage was launched, but even after we got them under our thumbs, they still harbor embers of resentment. If we pull out, those embers will quickly blaze to life. You can count on it."

Tevos had heard this argument before, having presented it to herself before making the suggestion. She had to admit it was a good one, but she was confident her counter-argument was better.

"Right now, my fellow Councilors, we stand to lose everything. If the Corpus should organize a full-scale attack on any of key infrastructure supports, the size of the one they launched against this station, we would be unable to counter them. If we lose any of those support mechanisms, then the Corpus will eventually break our line and crush us. If we win, I doubt the Krogan problem will have grown to the point you seem to be suggesting, if they even become a problem at all. Their population shrinks with each passing year. Even if, in their spiteful rage, they should chose to try and rise up again, they will only be hurting themselves in the long run." she said, steepling her fingers.

"We can either continue to stretch our lines thinner to the point of breaking, or cut our losses in areas where our presence is not a necessity. I can clearly see what needs to be done, as distasteful it may be. What say you two?"

Ikkitha and Sparatus locked gazes, each trying to gauge the other's thoughts and eventual response. On the one hand Tevos was right, their lines were getting stretched thinner as ships were lost and the Corpus used what some troops called 'space magic' to bypass them entirely, while the Krogan were quickly becoming a non-issue. Youth among the Krogan were a rare enough sight as it was, and the veterans also seemed to be a disappearing minority. Like Tevos said, the choice was clear.

Both of them slumped back in their seats.

"I'll have the seventh and ninth fleets out of the DMZ before the end of the seventh solar cycle. Troops, ships, everything."

"The STG will leave behind a single ship to keep an eye out any changes. All agents in the system will otherwise be extracted."

Tevos nodded.

"With luck, by the time this is done, our Spectres will have returned with information that can end this war. Until they do, though, we must choose carefully, and plan for the outcome should they fail." she said, trying to be consoling. Personally, she didn't give a damn what the Krogan got up to while the Citadel was away. At this point, it couldn't be worse than the situation the Corpus had already put them in…

_A secret is its own shovel. No matter how deeply you bury it, it will eventually dig itself out._

-Grand Marshal Hieronymus Baphomet of the Orokin Imperial Guard, 3926 I.A.-

A/N: And there you have it, the Council is abandoning Tuchanka. Of course, the Corpus won't be the ones to hand the Krogans' quad to them. If you've got half a brain and you know Warframe, you can probably guess who that honor's reserved for. Some species that were treated poorly enough in canon and who people like to pity and treat nicely in their stories are going to suffer a LOT in this story before they finally get up on their feet again and stand strong. The Krogans will be one. The Quarians are another. To be fair, I don't dislike either race to a prodigious extent, it's just that they're the most exposed and being on the fringes of society, they'll be the first trampled when the chaos of the Origin System spills over into the rest of the galaxy. Admittedly my opinion of the Quarians is not that great. They tried to exterminate the Geth for asking a question, and when their children kicked their asses, they ran away. Now they sit in space, several centuries later, their pride pretty much being the only thing they have left while their feed their children a culture of self-victimization and revenge (I'm looking at you, Rael). The Krogans? Well, their problem can really be summed up in two words: warrior culture. They've still got one foot in their animal instincts. Of course this probably seems all incredibly racist, but it's just observation. And the Council races have their own issues that give me beef with them. I mean the big three, not the minor ones (and hating the Batarians for being slaving bastards is just par for the course). They've been on top so long they have trouble adapting to new situations. It's just stagnation in action. The Asari were there first, and so have managed to stay on top of galactic society because they wrote the rules. Between the Beacon of Athame and the Council of Matriarchs, they're pretty vicious conservatives. The Turians are just military drones, can't really blame them for much. Of course in canon Desolas was a prick, but you can't judge a species based on an individual. Still, fascist society, never conducive to progress. Of course the species everyone should really hate is the Salarians, slimy bastards. I love Mordin, he's a wonderful individual, but his society is run by vicious scheming matriarchs (same problem as the Asari actually) and the STG is probably responsible for a large portion of the suffering in the galaxy, either directly or indirectly. Wetworks operations are rarely nice, and the STG have proven time and again to have a nasty streak to them. The Genophage was just the tip of the iceberg.

At this point you're probably thinking: "Oh yeah, this is going to be another 'HUMANITY, FUCK YEAH!' story." Trust me when I say I'm trying NOT to make it that. Humanity WILL have a rather large edge over everyone, but they're emerging from a dark age that lasted six centuries, and what's more, they are no longer aided by the species that essentially brought out their better half: the Orokin. Even amongst the good guys, there will be petty, greedy, vindictive and generally stupid behavior as there has been all throughout human history. Nobody's perfect. Anyway, soon we'll be heading into the first event, the Fusion Moa Crusade. Also, I'm going to ask Follower38 if he can post the Codex entries on his page. They'll probably start out as really short. The first will be about the Fieldron, by popular request (rolls eyes). The secrets of the Corpus will soon be revealed. Oh, and the Medi-Gel? For those who don't know, the human run Sirta Foundation manufactures that. Here of course, said foundation is a component of the Corpus, so they aren't exactly going to be selling it to the enemy…at least not directly. Who knows…maybe Darvo gets Oh, and a further note, I totally made up 'Mantell', to try and preserve the canon logic. Since they're only contact with humanity has been the Corpus, they probably still use their own measurement systems, and while I can slide by with a 'day' and a 'year' and possibly even 'week', Sir Kelvin was a human and that just doesn't work when aliens are talking about temperature. Then again, we're probably so deep in the future poor Sir Kelvin has been forgotten, so yeah maybe it's a moot point. Ok, enough of my huge ranting note, ON WITH THE STORY!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

_The fires of chaos fuel the birth of greatness._

-Common Grineer Proverb-

**Location: Local Cluster, Origin System, Solar Periphery, Clan Alecto Dojo, Dueling Room C6**

**Date: September 25, 643 P.C.**

It had been less than a day since he had returned to the land of the living, and already Atton felt world-weary. After the Lotus had briefed him on the current state of affairs, it had taken all of his will not to suffer a total breakdown. As the hours passed, the weight had grown easier to bear, but all the time the gnawing doubts of his subconscious and jumbled memories of his scrambled neocortex continued to torment him. As it stood, he was no closer to putting his mind in order than he had been when he had awakened.

In an attempt to try and take his mind off things, he had chosen to hone his long-unused skills by fighting Void Specters in one of the Clan dueling rooms. Normally he would've used a virtual reality arena, like those the Lotus employed to conduct tests on warriors who were preparing for promotion, but right now he wanted to kill something, and his personal ship was still being retrofitted. Until it was ready, he was grounded, and so he had to settle for the next best thing.

In one hand, he held a Skana Prime, taken from his personal armory, which he had been happy to find was still fully functional and stocked after all this time. In the other, he held a Lato Prime, fully loaded. On the ground in front of him, his latest foe, a Void Specter in the shape of a Loki Warframe, slowly disintegrated as the forces that gave it form dissipated. Usually, these Specters were used by the Dojo to defend itself, projecting false copies of the Clan members to repel intruders alongside automated robotic sentries. In this case, they served a excellent cannon fodder for his practice regime.

"Reset arena mode and raise difficulty to tier three." he commanded, using the voice recognition systems to adjust the chamber's settings. He twirled his Skana Prime, then sheathed it on his back before checking that his Lato Prime was fully loaded. Once he was sure he was ready, he knelt on one of the four circular pads that marked the fighting zone. Said zone was a lowered, roughly rectangular area surrounded by a transparent energy barrier that activated when combat was initiated, preventing the fighting from spilling out into the rest of the room. At the back of the chamber was a massive statue of the Buddha, Siddhartha, surrounded by heavy Taiko drums, which gazed down serenely at Atton as he prepared himself for the next onslaught.

Atton sucked in a breath beneath his helmet and then waited. He had set the system to launch its attack without warning, as it would be the case in reality. It was for this reason that he was prepared when a Void Specter in the shape of a Frost Warframe materialized behind him and tried to decapitate him with a short Skana. He ducked, rolled to the side and drew his own blade to parry the second swipe, which came courtesy of a long-bladed Skana in his foe's other hand. Immediately his foe tried to counterattack, but expertly he batted aside the shorter blade and then fired point blank into his foe's gut. The Void Specter stumbled back, and Atton increased the distance between them with a kick, and then retreated until a distance of ten feet was between them. He bent his torso to the right to avoid the Freeze technique the Specter tried to cast, the bolt passing within a mere few millimeters of his side, then retaliated by unleashing a Radial Blind that briefly stunned the false Tenno and incidentally disrupted the cloaking of a second Specter that had taken the form of a Loki Warframe and was creeping up on his left to smash a heavy Scindo axe into him.

Upon spotting the new opponent, Atton cartwheeled clear, narrowly avoiding of the hasty swipe the Loki made when it realized its Invisibility technique had collapsed, firing his Lato Prime into its face with unwavering accuracy when he landed on his feet again. Unfortunately, the Specter turned out to be a Decoy, and Atton could not help but chuckle as he danced backwards away from the hologram. It was a fake of a fake, and its creator had doubtlessly already darted clear of his fire by the time he had pulled the trigger, using the distraction of the attempt with the Scindo to cloak again.

On guard, he turned back to the Frost Specter, which was circling around the arena's edge, and saw that it was now joined by an imitation Banshee and Volt. Four against one…and it was just getting started. Twirling his Skana Prime, Atton closed his eyes for half a second and tapped into the Void, its power flowing through his Warframe's energy cells and by extension, his entire body. He waited until he was suffused with the swirling potential of raw creation, then opened his eyes again, his vision edged with blue fire. He could see the complex lattices of force that made up the Specters, a galaxy of nameless particles that behaved like matter, even though they were anything but. His Warframe burned with tracings of light along its surface, mirroring the designs that covered its structure like veins. The hilt of his Skana flashed bright as the luminescence spread down his arm and up the blade, funneling into the weapon.

He smiled, holstered his Lato Prime by his side and then without warning, he lunged. His Skana Prime lashed out deflected the first strike of the Orthos the Banshee was carrying, seizing its shaft with his free hand and flipping his blade upside-down in his grip to block a fresh attack by the Frost, before running up the transparent force-field around the arena like a wall, still gripping the Orthos and therefore twisting its user around as he came down on its left side, putting the Banshee between himself and his initial opponent. The Specter whose weapon he still gripped yanked back on the Orthos' shaft, trying to unbalance him as he came down, and succeeded, or at least appeared to, right up until Atton delivered a scorpion-kick to the Specter's face plate. Then he released the Orthos and drew back, just in time to avoid a fresh strike from the invisible Loki, which brought its Scindo down between Atton and its Banshee ally, missing him by a hair's breadth.

He responded by grabbing one of the Loki's helmet-fins and then hammering the hilt of his sword into the back of its head, sending it sprawling. Before he could execute his ambusher, the Banshee executed a Sonic Boom technique and a bluish blast wave hurled Atton backwards at high speed. He recovered, and as his foe leaped over its fallen comrade, released his hold on the Void, causing the fanstastic lighting effects to vanish. Then he lunged forward in a Slash Dash. The Banshee anticipated and caught the strike on the Orthos' shaft, spinning away from the streak of golden light, allowing the horizontal swipe of the Skana to bisect the Frost at the waist. Split in half, the Specter dissipated like smoke, returned to the Void-stuff it had been made of. Atton stopped three feet from the fallen Specter and back-flipped away from the three survivors, making sure to keep them in his field of view. Then the universe bent inwards and he suddenly found himself next to the Banshee again, who was already turning to face him and bringing one blade of the Orthos down on his collarbone. It was a test of pure reaction and reflex, and logic said that he couldn't block the strike with his sword, not at this juncture.

So he didn't.

Instead he dropped to one knee and ducked forward, the blade of the Orthos skimming over his back, just before he surged forward and drove the horn of his helmet into the Banshee Specter's gut. Reacting like a real person, the Specter stumbled backwards, then recoiled as he rose to his feet and brought an elbow around to connect with its face, disorienting it. Then, with one mighty swipe, he bisected the Banshee as well, diagonally from hip to shoulder. Again, the Specter evaporated like smoke from an extinguished match, leaving him with only two, check that, three opponents. The newest one was an Ember Warframe, done up in the grey and glowing blue highlights of a Tenno Void Specter. Atton spun and dropped to one knee, bringing his sword up to counter a double downward stabbing attack by the Volt, who was wielding a pair of Fang daggers, angling the blade so the two smaller weapons slid off to the right while he rolled back and pulled his Lato Prime, shooting the Specter half a dozen times in the chest and head, forcing it to back off and try to deflect the bullets with its knives, an easy enough task for a Tenno, but one which prevented one from attacking at the same time.

Once there was space, he vaulted back to his feet, bringing the Skana up in a sweeping arc in an attempt to slice this Specter in half as well, only to be thwarted when the Specter blocked with both Fangs and shoved his blade back. It twirled the weapons as he regained his balance, then settled into a defensive stance, knees bent. Atton snorted, then tapped the Void again. This time though, he did not channel the energy into his blade, but into the matrices of his Warframe.

As a Silver Sage, Atton was versed in advanced forms of power-projection that were unknown to those who ranked beneath him. One of these was the Spectral Blade technique, an ability reserved for those who wore the Excalibur Warframe. The last time he had used it, he had been standing beside his Clan-mates as they took back Zephon, an ice-mining world that had been among the first to fall to the Sentients and was among the last they had to retake from them. He had used to it to eviscerate a Sentient-controlled Gamera'ak, a titan that loomed over all other known sapient races, twelve feet tall and augmented with Sentient biomechanical implants. It had come apart like-

"End combat." he said suddenly. Instantly the Volt, the Ember and the Loki all evaporated like their fellows, leaving him alone in the room. He sheathed his Skana and holstered his Lato as he struggled to recall the train of thought that a mere few seconds ago seemed so clear to him. Yet for all his mental exertion, the memory, which had been piecing itself together like Orokin Forma with crystalline precision, remained out of reach. Snarling in anger, he turned and slammed his fist into the rippling barrier around the arena, which was deactivating, lowering like a curtain made of almost perfectly still water. His fist bounced off.

Why!? Why couldn't he remember? What in the name of the Void was wrong with him!? Perhaps it would be better to be like his brethren. At least they did not have to deal with knowing precisely what had happened without being able to make sense of it.

On the far side of the room, the door hissed open and a Rhino-clad Tenno marched in, helmet under one arm. Atton looked up and saw the chiseled jaw and sharp features of Follower-of-the-Path, one of his old students. He hadn't spoken with many people over the last few days, but on seeing the old veteran, his heart rose from its pit of furious despair.

"Follower!" he said by way of greeting, bowing it the waist, "Good to see you again."

"Likewise, old friend." he answered, giving him a grin that was three parts relief and one part nervousness. They came together and linked arms, grasping at the elbows as Atton had with Haigen.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your practicing," Follower said as they shook.

"It's a welcome break. I was getting worn out anyway." Atton lied. If Follower caught the deception, he didn't show it. In fact it looked very much like he had something else to say.

"So, what's going on?" he asked as they broke the greeting-grasp.

"The Warlord has summoned the inner circle to the Gathering Hall for a private meeting. He says it's for our ears only and he wanted you to be there."

Atton grinned a tired grin.

"No rest for the wicked, eh?" he asked.

"Hey, don't complain. It was pretty much the same for us when we woke up. The universe doesn't wait for you to get it together." Follower answered, waving his hands and trying to placate his old mentor.

"I just thought he'd give me more than a day to get back on my feet." Atton complained. It wasn't a real complaint though, more a half-hearted protest by someone who knows that he should know better.

"Hey, I got all of eighteen hours after waking up before I was running my first mission against the Grineer. You're a good twelve hours ahead of me in terms of recovery." Follower retorted. Atton chuckled.

"That's because you don't know when to stop." he shot back.

"You got me." Follower said, his smile widening and spreading his arms in an admission of guilt, "I live to bust heads. Now come on, they're probably waiting for us."

**Location: Local Cluster, Origin System, Solar Periphery, Clan Alecto Dojo, Gathering Hall**

The room had barely changed since its last use the previous day. Apart from the decreased number of occupants, it was still the same old room; a circular chamber with a speaking area in the middle ringed by sloped tiers of galleries filled with seats. This time though, only the lowest tier was filled, with less than a dozen Tenno. At the center of the speaking area stood Haigen, fully decked out in his Frost Prime, equaled in glory only by Atton, who had refrained from returning his weapons to his personal armory. As he entered and took his seat, the old mentor and the Warlord exchanged a nod of acknowledgement. The other Tenno either applauded or cheered to see him, much more vocal about their joy at the return of their old teacher and friend. This continued until Hagen tapped his Reaper Prime's blade on the floor just as he had yesterday. The sound echoed, amplified by the acoustics of the room and silencing those present.

"I realize we are all overjoyed to see that one of our best and most treasured members has returned to us, but time is pressing." he declared, then stepped back as the lights dimmed and a familiar lavender-clad figure materialized beside him. As before, the assembled Tenno rose and bowed to the Lotus, who gave a small smile, the only sign that she had noticed the act of respect.

"Greetings, Clan Alecto." she said, her voice echoing like the sound of Haigen's weapon, "it seems fate has smiled on you for us to meet again so soon. Alas, I must apologize for bringing you more bad news." She waved her hand and a transparent rectangle appeared next to her. The thing didn't so much glow as blur the air like glass.

"Three months ago, one of my agents managed to infiltrate the research facilities of Psamanthe. They were unable to remain very long, but they did retrieve a number of files from a secure computer, including a number of communiques between an unidentified Corpus agent and the Board of Directors. It has taken us some time to decode all of them but the last one was fully translated five hours ago, and its contents are most troubling." the holographic digital demigoddess explained. She waved her hand again, this time over the surface of the transparent rectangle, and along its surface, the slender and linear letters of the Corpus alphabet began to appear. As they did, an aged, wheezing voice began to speak, keeping time with the words.

"It works!" cried the voice, "They said it could not be done, that the Void salvage was only good for a museum!" This statement was followed by a brief pause where the writing stopped and a long series of hacking coughs started up, indicating that the speaker was having some serious bronchial issues. After about twenty seconds of this, it began to speak again.

"Now we have a functional prototype of Orokin energy beams installed on our robotics. While I am horribly burned and limbless, it was worth it in the service of our great enterprise!" the voice declared, before going silent for good. Many of the assembled Tenno weren't sure whether to grin or grimace. The thought of the Corpus wielding the power of Orokin fusion lasers was an awful one, though it was evidently obvious they had paid a high price for it.

"There is more to the message, but that largely covers the important part." the Lotus explained, "The date-stamp on the communique marks it as having been sent five months ago, around the time that I noted certain forges were going into over-drive on Venus. Messages that we now know to be misinformation led us to believe that they were simply trying to replenish their defenses around Pluto in response to Vor's raiding."

"But they weren't." Atton said, "They were building an army, weren't they?" The Lotus' lips turned down at the corners in a deeply concerned frown and waved her hand again. The panel of light disappeared and in its place, a new projection appeared.

"The final communique was accompanied by this image." she stated as the three-dimensional illusion coalesced.

"Oh hell…" Atton said upon seeing what it was. The vertices of light and energy had come together to form a long-legged bipedal shape like a mechanical heron with an elliptical pod mounted on its rear, not too dissimilar to a Corpus MOA, which, as everyone knew, was derived from an ancient Orokin design, one that was encountered in only two places: Tenno Dojos and the Orokin Void Towers.

Tenno Dojos had MOAs of their own to supplement their Void Specter-based defense systems. They looked identical to the machine that now stood before them, except their bodies were colored light grey, rather than the shade of tan that this imitation bore. The possibility that the Corpus would succeed in finding, much less invading and taking a Dojo was so remote as to be utterly ludicrous. That left only one other option, which the recording had made clear was the case. This was that the Corpus had managed to somehow gain access to a Void Tower.

It wasn't an unusual thing. The Tenno did it all the time. The difference between them and the Corpus though was that they knew the Void. They were steeped in its energies. And there was more to it than that. Orokin Void Keys were capable of many functions, chief of which was allowing access to Void Towers and protecting their bearers from the insidious Neural Sentries that defended the structures, as well as from the Void itself. It was not unheard of for people to simply disappear in the Void, vanishing without a trace if they were not equipped with some means of stabilization. The Tenno controlled the vast majority of known surviving Keys, but it was entirely possible that there were more out there somewhere, waiting to be found.

Of course, there was a flaw in that idea too. If the Corpus sent an agent into Tower with single Key, he would have to go alone. The Keys worked on an individual basis. You had to have one to get in. If you didn't you'd be metaphorically left standing outside at best. At worst, you might get in anyway and be converted to a brainwashed slave of the Sentry, a body with no will or thoughts of its own save an overpowering desire to protect the Tower's secrets…at any cost. The idea of a single Corpus agent evading the countless fools that the Sentry had lured in and enslaved over the ages in order to bring back anything of value was as ridiculous as the thought of a successfully capturing a Dojo. To get off as lightly as he clearly had, the man would've needed to bring a small army with him, which of course again begged the question of 'how'?

While all this was running through Atton's mind, the Lotus was continuing to speak.

"We are still investigating as to how the Corpus came into possession of the aforementioned 'salvage', as well as how they were able to reverse-engineer the technology within, but what matters most now is that they have it and they've applied it, and not just to their machines. The rest of the communique also mentions using the technology to reverse the climate damage many colonies have suffered since the Collapse, particularly those going through ice ages."

Many of the Tenno groaned at the news. For four-hundred years, the Corpus and the Grineer had been at a stalemate, with both sides holding roughly equal advantages. The Grineer controlled most of the Ferrite in the Origin System, among other materials, giving them a heavy resource advantage, but the Corpus had a superior manufacturing base. This was a major reason they had never gone to full-scale war since the Treaty of Ganymede had been signed roughly four-hundred years ago, ending official hostilities between the two sides. Sure, they still bickered and raided each other, but for the most part they maintained a good business relationship, the Grineer using their slave labor pool to mine their resources and sell them to the Corpus while the Corpus got rich selling finished products back to the Grineer.

The Tenno had initiated the uprisings on Mercury because Vor was trying to upset the balance by boosting the Grineers' manufacturing capacity. Before the Tenno had even awakened, he had been building assembly plants and similar engines of industry all over Mercury. Now the reverse was going to happen with the Corpus as they began to unlock the resources of worlds they had possessed but never exploited, their environments having made mining too harsh a prospect to be a profit.

"How many modified MOAs are we talking about here?" Uther Gloern inquired, trying to focus on the more immediate threat. He was a Rhino-wearer, among those that had gone with Haigen on the mission to retrieve Atton and kill Vor.

"At present we believe that only a million have been made."

"Only a million?" Kasumi asked sarcastically.

"They are a test batch. As you know, many of the colonies of Europa are suffering from Technocyte outbreaks that have become incredibly entrenched."

"Let me guess;" Atton opined, 'The Board wants to know if they're getting their money's worth." When not practicing, he had taken the time to read up on the enemies the Tenno would be facing over the past twenty-eight hours. It was a good thing that Tenno technically didn't need sleep because there had been a great deal of stuff. Everything he had read about the Corpus seemed to paint them as cautious to the point of being miserly. Of course their leaders would want a demonstration before authorizing more expenditure.

"Indeed, and if the results are positive, then we can expect to see these machines being launched in massive numbers throughout the Origin System."

Everyone grimaced. The idea of the cheap, easy-to-deal-with knockoffs the Corpus had so far been using being replaced by hundreds of heavily armored and armed death machines equipped with emergency support drones was not a happy one.

"What do we need to do?" Haigen asked.

"At present I am sending the call to every Clan that is currently confirmed as awake. This must be handled both delicately and with overwhelming force."

"How's that?" Follower asked, confused by the oxymoronic statement.

"We must destroy as many of the MOAs as we can, but not all of them. We must make it appear on the final fiscal statement of the test that the new model is not efficient enough to put into mass production."

"But that means they'll still keep making them." Kasumi complained.

"At this point it would be impossible to convince them not to. We can however mitigate the damage by ensuring that they do not go about building one Fusion MOA for every five standard models as opposed to one for every five-thousand." the Lotus pointed out. Kasumi sank back in her seat with a look of tired acceptance.

"Alright, so we don't need to kill them all, just enough to make a difference." Atton remarked. The Lotus paused for a moment, before turning to face him directly.

"Precisely." she said, "But there is more. I could have simply sent your clan this information in a communique of my own, but instead I choose to face you now because I bring further instructions…from the Founder's Council"

Atton's eyes widened. Now there was something you didn't hear every century.

As a Silver Sage, Atton was quite accomplished by Tenno standards, but he was by no means supreme amongst his brothers and sisters. That honor was reserved for members of the Founder's Council, the oldest and wisest of the Tenno. The organization was made up entirely of Grand Masters, as only Grand Masters were allowed to be a part of it. In fact, every Grand Master in existence held a position in that esteemed body. When a Tenno achieved the rank of Grand Master, they were automatically inducted into the Founder's Council, regardless of clan allegiance or prior ties. They were the closest thing the Tenno had to a unified ruling body, especially in these dark days. When the Lotus had first awakened the Tenno, she had called upon the Founders first. Between them, she and they had organized Vor's downfall. Like the Lotus, they held no true written power over their brothers and sisters, but unlike the Lotus, they did more than just gather and distribute information. When the Tenno needed to move towards a greater cause or a common goal, the Founders came together, and the respect their fellows had for them was all the authority they needed to make their orders stick…usually.

For the Founders to contact a single Clan was a rare thing, rarer even than for a Clan to receive a personal visit from the Lotus. If they were talking directly to Clan Alecto, out of all the Clans currently awake, they must have some great plan or objective, which they wanted to entrust only to those that had proved their worth. Follower and Nathan and the rest had clearly worked this out too, because they were grinning. Even Haigen, ever stoic, looked pleased by the news after a fashion.

The Lotus waved her hand in the air. A holographic display of a female Tenno in an Ember Prime Warframe appeared as the transparent rectangle had, except this one appeared in triplicate, forming a triangle of identical images so that every Tenno in the room could see it.

"Clan Alecto." she said, a statement rather than a question. Her face was covered in scars and lines, a veteran of battles beyond count. As the recording continued, that spider web of wrinkles and blemishes barely seemed to move, like it was a statue talking rather than a person.

"My name if Grand Master Elanna Ragnarov. Allow me to be the first to congratulate you on slaying the tyrant Vor. From all I have heard, it was a fierce battle, one worthy of at least a war-tapestry." she said. At those last words, one corner of her lips turned up in an amused smirk. Nathan, Kasumi and Follower exchanged looks that said they weren't sure whether to be mortified or proud.

"That said," the aged Tenno continued, "our work is far from over. Mercury is in chaos and an unexpected pattern is emerging." Here, Elanna's face vanished and an image of Mercury and its various orbital colonies appeared to replace it. The planet itself was divided up into three major sections. All of the locations, including the colonies in orbit, were marked in red and emblazoned with the blocky sigil of the Grineer.

At least, that was how it started out.

As the Tenno watched, the red quickly began to retreat, making way for a new color, a deep blue that spread like the ocean, jumping from station to orbital to colony, until it had reached Mercury itself, where it raced across the globe until the toxic red of its nemesis had been forced back to controlling only one of the three sectors it had once held.

"What you are looking at is an unparalleled uprising, a unification of various resistance movements that had, until now, stayed in the shadows. Our actions allowed them to come out in a way they never expect. As it stands, this alliance has managed to capture the vast majority of Grineer assets, both in orbit and on the planet, intact. That gives them titanic manufacturing power, and a fleet strong enough to hold what they've taken, at least for a while."

For a moment, the Tenno sat in shock. It was a horrible thing to say, but hadn't expected this. They had initiated the devastating revolutions across Mercury and its satellites so as to unbalance Vor and destroy the industrial might he had been assembling, which had, as previously stated, been threatening the balance of power in Origin. They had believed that things would end with the late Captain's efforts in ashes and the uprisings suppressed by fresh troops from Earth, once the Twin Queens finally realized their pawn was eliminated and bestirred themselves to deal with the problem personally.

They had never, in their wildest dreams, imagined that they might accidentally sow the seeds of a power, which, if the Grand Master was being truthful, now had the means and the will to become the newest player in the game of empires the Origin System was embroiled in. It boggled the mind. Some of those present were horrified. Others like Haigen, were concerned as to what this might mean for the Tenno and their mission to uphold the balance if it should continue. Amongst them all, Nathan sat and stared with an expression of intense calculation that seemed out of place with the looks his fellow Tenno were wearing. Follower caught his eye, and he gave his friend an inquiring raise of the eyebrows. In response, Nathan's lips began to turn up at the corners, slowly at first, and then with increasing speed until he wore a look of…was that joy? Follower was shocked. He hadn't seen Nathan this happy since the day he had managed to recover the memory of his marriage to Kasumi.

"This outcome was not expected, but perhaps it is better that it came to pass." Elanna stated, her face a mask of determination, "It has forced the Founders, and I daresay, all Tenno, to ask ourselves what we are fighting for. Our goal has always been to uphold the balance of power. The code that governs us was put in place for a reason. We wield the power of the Void, the power to reshape the universe, but that does not make us gods. Yet in these past years, for all our struggles, all we have really done is tip the scales back in the favor of a force as detestable as the one we sought to undermine. There is no light to be made here, no glory to be found, just an endless cycle of evening the balance in a twilight age that will continue until the last fires of hope dwindle and die."

Now the aged warrior's face tightened into a mask of grim determination.

"The Founders have been debating for the past week, ever since it became clear to us how far reaching the consequences of our actions have become. Three hours ago, we came to a decision. Some Tenno may not agree, and while we fear for the future unity of the Clans, the Council feels that this is something that must be done. We are not deities, but we neither will we allow this Night to continue a second longer. Our consciences will not allow it."

"Spit it out." Nathan muttered, sincerely irritated now at the waiting. Haigen gave him a glower of displeasure, but for once, the icy glare failed to affect the man.

"I am sending this message to you on behalf of the entire Founder's Council. Your Clan was selected for your part in the events that brought this outcome. We have a mission for you that we hope will help stabilize this new nation's position. It is only fitting that you help see it through."

Haigen let out a choked 'WHAT!?'. The Grand Master continued on in spite of his protestation.

"We have come to the unanimous conclusion that continued existence of this new alliance is vital to the future prosperity of Origin and the galaxy as a whole. Its survival is paramount if this Night is to ever end. We realize some will not agree, and even claim that this goes against the codes, but-"

"Pause." Haigen suddenly commanded. His face was a storm of emotions. Anger, betrayal, shock, hope…they were all sleeting across his visage at once as he turned to the Lotus.

"This is authentic?" he asked. She tossed her head back in irritation, as if offended at the very idea that she would ever bring him a false transmission.  
"I recorded this with a dozen different devices. I had one of my caretakers present to verify her words. It is genuine." she said, her voice so frigid that even Haigen's icy glare seemed like melt-water in comparison. Haigen, his face still registering a vortex of confused feelings, turned back to the triangle of video screens and nodded.

"Play." he said. The image, which had frozen at his command, sprang back to life.

"-in these dark times, it must be said that in these dark times the greatest law of all is the law of conscience…and our consciences demand an end to the darkness. The choice to carry out this mission will be yours and yours alone. As a Clan, you must decide whether or not to partake. It is not our place to force you, as our authority is formal, not literal. Still we hope that you will look past the bindings of old and stand with us as we sow the seeds of a better tomorrow." With that, the trio of video displays dissolved, just as the transparent rectangle had. Silence fell over the room, a pause as profound as that following the conclusion of a thunderous and uplifting orchestral piece. The echoes of the Founder's words were still ringing in the ears of the assembled Tenno when the Lotus began to speak.

"I have an enclosed document attached to the recording containing the mission details. I will leave it your care. The choice as to whether or not to execute it and who you might choose to includes has, as the Founders stated, been left up to you." she stated, before turning so for a moment she was staring at each of them, making sure they felt her presence.

"As Lotus, it would be against my coding for me to make any sort of suggestion that would influence your opinion in this delicate matter. All I will say is that I hope you choose wisely, Tenno." she said in conclusion. Then, bowing her head, she and her holographic projections faded away, the light returning to normal levels.

There was a pause of geological proportions.

Then the room erupted into chaos.

_Market forces are like natural forces. You either keep up with the flow, or you drown._

-from the personal diaries of Alad V., Head of Grineer Relations, 643 P.C.-

A/N: Welp, that was more dramatic than last time, no? The Tennos' break from the old ways is going to have a lot of personal effects on our characters, as any such massive paradigm shift would. Some will agree, some won't. This will play into the greater story in a big way. As for the Cairn, it'll be more impressive this time around, I promise. And those of you wanting to see Cadmus again, just wait patiently. We've got a ways to go before the story of the Tenno catches up with the Corpus/Council War, but when it does, it'll be very rewarding. As for the people who claim this is a 'FUCK YEAH, HUMANITY!' story, I'm telling you it's not. The Council isn't totally defenseless, or the Corpus would've rolled over them by now. They're holding their own for now, and trust me when I say things will turn out alright in the end there. They know that EMPs are a major instrument against the Corpus robotics, but like in the Matrix, they affect everyone's stuff, including the good-guys if it's not hardened against EMP. Still, they'll be using that to gain a bit of ground before the tide turns.


End file.
